


The School Prince

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: (kinda?), Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Addicted The Series AU, Alcohol, Alternate Universe - High School, Enemies to Lovers, In Denial, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Pseudo-Incest, Rating may change to M, Romance, Swearing, Temporarily Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 15:26:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 37,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7367176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reserved, cold, and aloof, yet so handsome, so self-assured and intelligent... Green was the coolest guy in school, and he didn't even have to try. He was known as the School Prince, and about half of the girls in his year had a crush on him. Green was tough competition - and Gold wasn't too happy about that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enter the Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Just to put it out there, this fic is heavily inspired by a chinese BL series called _Are You Addicted?/Addicted_ (你丫上瘾了?) by _Chai Jidan_.
> 
> Obviously, it's not a 100% copy, in fact I alter the plot a lot to fit the Pokespe characters, and also to have a simpler story. There are also many obvious references though - you can tell it's inspired by it.
> 
> This high school is (mostly) based on the Beijing schooling system. Our characters are currently in Year 2 of high school (高二), which means that they're all 17.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :)

Green was trying his best to concentrate during literature class, but the two classmates sat behind him were also trying their best to prevent him from doing so, apparently.

He was Green Oak, the handsome guy with his headphones always hooked around his neck for convenience, because he was always listening to music to filter out the bullshit around him; the one wearing his plaid shirt to school, because his favourite purple jumper would look awkward under the already loose school jacket, and he wanted to at least look nice. This handsome guy now sat in the third last row from the back of the class. Sitting in the seat behind him, was Silver.

Silver was a good person. Green had only gotten to know him this year, but the guy really was a diamond in the rough: he was poor, struggled to access the internet and didn’t even have a phone, yet he managed to enter Class 2-A this year, the class known for its top (and usually richer) students. Green thought pretty highly of him; the guy was also trying to pay attention in class, so no, he wasn’t the one causing a ruckus back there.

It was the _idiot_  who sat behind Silver.

His name was Red, who also happened to be Green’s childhood friend. He sat at the last seat, pestering the poor guy in front of him, something he had already been doing for the past few days. Right now, Red was trying to make Silver turn around look at something, even though the guy brushed him off every time.

Green knew that the two of them were currently in the midst of a prank war of some kind – just yesterday, Silver had tampered with the doorknob to lock Red out. He ended up being accused of spoiling the door look, even though it still functioned perfectly well afterwards. Silver almost had to pay for something he didn’t break – which was especially bad for someone as poor as he was. Still, it looked like neither of them were about to stop their game, and Green would rather not interfere.

Green did ask Red about it once, but the guy simply smiled, saying, “He made me do it.”

_How childish,_  Green had thought. _You’re a top scholar! Why let someone like yourself bother with such petty things? Aren’t you just asking for trouble?_

Green had asked him the second question, to which Red had simply laughed at.

“Exactly,” Red had replied. Green remembered shrugging it off, dismissing it as one of his crazy antics.

Truth was, Green already knew the truth. Red’s “pranks” were akin to a little boy pulling the pigtails of the girl he liked. It was so obvious, at least to someone as observant as Green was. Green would sometimes look back his way and realise that Red was staring into the back of Silver’s head, smiling so widely he looked like a complete idiot. The way Red talked with Green about that guy, seeing little hearts appear in his eyes...

It was disgusting. Green couldn’t bring himself to feel happy for his best friend at all; he already had to stop himself from disliking Silver over something that clearly wasn’t his fault.

Why was he being so negative about it? Green willingly admitted that he used to have a crush on Red, but not anymore, so why was it still bothering him so much? Why was he being so protective over him, anyway? It wasn’t like he owned him.

Green heard tables and chairs being bumped about behind him, and he immediately knew what had happened. Red had pushed his table into the back of Silver’s chair. Sighing, Green eventually gave up and slumped into his chair, sighing.

Suddenly, Green felt the teacher’s eyes resting on him, boring a hole into him as if slightly irritated that Green was sitting in such an indifferent way, in his class... Green sighed internally, knowing exactly what was coming next.

“So, Green, tell the class, what impression the protagonist has left on the reader?” asked the teacher, smiling thinly at Green. “Just one point is fine.”

Green stood up, with every strand of elegance in his body.

“The protagonist gives off the impression that he is insecure,” he started. “Firstly, at the beginning of the extract, he ‘checks himself in the mirror five times,’ worrying about ‘his date not finding him handsome enough’ and ‘might leave him’. He’s anxious about his appearance, specifically whether he is handsome ‘enough’, which shows that he finds himself lacking. This goes beyond vanity, as he is anxious about not meeting his date’s expectations in particular, as a result of feeling that he may not look good enough. It also shows that feels unstable about the potential relationship. He appears to be someone with low self-esteem or self-confidence, so he leaves the impression of an insecure man.”

The teacher raised his eyebrows. “Very good, Green,” he praised. “Impressive for an impromptu answer.”

Green looked to the side, which happened to be where majority of the girls were sitting. He caught a glimpse of their admiring expressions, hearing murmurs of them gushing over him, and he simply let out an ‘hmph’ sound.

He was sad to say that he had become used to this happening. Although, on the other hand, he quite liked the attention...

As he sat down, he turned back at the two guys behind him. Red gave him a vigorous thumbs up, waving them around wildly, while Silver gave a small, impressed smile.

Satisfied, Green settled himself with that. He looked back in front, with a confident, almost smug smile on his face.

**~~~~**

Gold was in a pretty bad mood today. Which was ironic, because earlier he had been in such high spirits, patting his chest and being so confident about asking out that cute girl from Class 2-C.

She wasn’t necessarily the prettiest, but she had such a unique charm about her that Gold quickly took a liking to. Gold couldn’t help but glance at her when she passed by him, Gold couldn’t help but think to himself about how cute she was, how much he wanted to at least get to know her...

He couldn’t take it anymore. He thought he might have had a chance.

He thought wrong.

Gold was absolutely furious, though not necessarily from getting rejected, because he understood when people didn’t reciprocate his feelings. These things were subjective, they had to come naturally, so a rejection would at most make him feel a little bummed out.

It was the _reason_ that she rejected him. It was the same reason why two of his other confessions didn’t make it, either.

_“...oh...hey, I’m flattered, but my heart has already been taken by someone else...” She had blushed slightly. “You know Green Oak, right? From 2-A?”_

Gold made the mistake of asking who he was, for the third time.

_“He’s the School Prince! You don’t know who he is?”_

Oh, that was the name he knew him by.

Who the hell was this guy again? And why was everyone and their mother in love with him?

Three times now! Three whole fucking times!

And Gold knew even more people who were head-over-heels in love with that jerk!

While stomping along the hallways, he saw a familiar mop of red hair a distance away, and immediately recognised the guy.

Usually, he would get excited upon seeing his childhood friend. He had made the habit of obnoxiously yelling his name halfway across the hallways, but this time, he was feeling a little too down to do so. Instead, he jogged on over to Silver, who was too busy looking out at somewhere else to notice him.

Gold lightly patted the guy's shoulder, making him jump a little.

“Hey, Silv,” he greeted, wrapping an arm around him lazily. “What’s up?”

“You seem a little off today...” Silver quickly commented.

“Oh, really?” asked Gold, in a rhetoric tone.

Gold shouldn’t have been surprised, but Silver’s perceptiveness never failed to astound him.

Silver sighed, as he leaned onto the shoulder of his best friend. Usually he’d feel uncomfortable doing this with guys, or anyone for that matter, but for all the obnoxious ridiculousness Gold had in his body, the guy was reliable. They had clearly became friends for a reason.

“Hey, this... Green Oak person, he’s in your class, right?” asked Gold briskly, in an offhanded sort of manner.

“Yeah, he sits in front of me,” replied Silver, equally casual, even though he could sense Gold's unhappiness. Gold often got unhappy over the smallest things, anyway. “Why?” he still asked.

Even though he knew the reason. It was clearly because Gold was unhappy about Green’s popularity.

Gold kept silent for a few seconds.

“Tell me how this Green Oak is like,” said Gold suddenly, in a prickly voice. “What makes him so popular, huh?”

Silver let out a small smile, proud that he had guessed it correctly. He put a hand to his chin, thinking about it for a while.

“...oh... I don’t know. I guess girls just really like how cool he is. He’s got this cold, indifferent facade that girls like, I guess? But he’s actually a pretty nice person, so that completes the picture. He’s tall, has a prestigious family background, he’s got good grades, and he’s handsome... he’s _the_ ideal type, of course he’s popular.”

“Hey, I’m rich and handsome too,” Gold huffed, clearly very bothered about this.

“But you aren’t as tall as Green,” Silver rebutted, with brutal honesty. “And you don’t have the same out-of-your-league vibe as he does. You flirt too much, so some people may think you’re annoying. But for someone like him? He gets people to pursue him, to want him to pursue them. You get it?”

Gold clicked his tongue. How annoying...

“Yeah, I guess,” he muttered, sounding very salty about it. “Anyway, class is starting, so I gotta go. See ya.”

“Bye,” went Silver, waving a hand at him.

Gold’s classroom was at the opposite side of the block, so he turned around and made his way there. Gritting his teeth, Gold walked back with hardened footsteps, lost in his thoughts.

Whoever this Green was, he was stealing all of his love interests away with such a sneaky trick. Gold detested people like him, who couldn’t be straightforward about anything, playing hard-to-get, making people want him like some high-hanging forbidden fruit. Then again, being a cheap, easy-to-grab low-hanging fruit wasn’t something Gold wanted to be, either.

Maybe he could learn a trick or two from this guy.


	2. Barrier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red followed Silver after school one day.

Silver walked home from school today, as he would any other day. Even when it rained, he had no umbrella to shield himself, and he would get completely drenched and arrive in school the next morning with a cold.

Red knew this, because he had followed the guy home in a cab once, while it was pouring. Seeing him trudge home with his wet body, with his jacket sticking tightly to his skin, bringing out his slender shape, until Red could almost see through his clothing...

It gave Red shivers just thinking about it.

Today, he decided to be more pragmatic and followed Silver on foot today, except this time, he already knew the route to his house, and simply left school about a minute after Silver did. Knowing Silver, the guy would easily notice someone tailing him by foot, especially on a bright, sunny day. So by doing this, he was perfectly inconspicuous.

Red eventually caught up with Silver, though, spotting him by his bright red hair. Honestly, it was difficult not to. Patiently, he stole behind a tree, waiting for Silver to turn the corner.

When Red caught up, he realised Silver was now standing in front of a street stall. The vendor was behind a barbeque pit, grilling many, many sticks of all sorts of meats and veggies. Even standing from this distance, Red could smell the fragrance, and it made his mouth water.

“Twenty meat skewers,” said Silver, loud enough to be heard over the barbeque, as well as the noise from the other patrons. “Five fishball sticks, five chicken kebabs, and three fish skewers.”

Red’s eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets. “Are you kidding me?!” he muttered in awe. It was like Silver had ordered all of his favourite foods, and tripled all the portion sizes.

Silver quickly found a table, where he took out a huge bottle of water and took a sip. Suddenly, a tall shadow fell onto him, and he lifted his gaze, turning to look at the person who was casting it.

Silver sighed. “Hello,” he greeted, although he didn’t seem entirely pleased to see him.

“Are you really finishing all that food by yourself?” asked Red, in an incredulous tone. Yet, his eyes were friendly, as if he were poking fun with a close friend.

Silver turned around to call out to the vendor. “Can I have an extra bowl of rice and chopsticks, please?”

“They sell drinks here too, right?” asked Red again. “Why water?”

“Don’t ask so many questions,” snapped Silver, “Or you can move to another table.”

“Okay, okay...” Red held up his hands, as the extra bowl and chopsticks were placed on the table.

“Why are you offering me free food, anyway?” asked Red, cheekily. “Do you like me that much?”

Red saw the darkened look on Silver’s face and immediately wanted to swallow back his words.

He was about to apologise profusely, but to his surprise, Silver simply let out a single huff.

“I wanted to be nice,” he said to Red, “Because, I don’t know. Maybe you’d stop bothering me if I don’t fight back for once.”

Red blinked a few times, genuinely surprised by Silver’s response. His silence made Silver’s expression darken again.

“If you really want to, you can order your own food. You don’t have to take mine.”

“No no,” Red quickly cut in. “I do want it.”

To accentuate his point, Red snatched a half-eaten skewer from Silver’s hand, taking a huge bite out of it.

“What the...? There’s so many here, why did you have to snatch the one I’m eating?”

Red grinned at him.

“I just felt like it.”

Silver shifted a few inches away Red. For the next couple of minutes, they ate in complete silence.

“Okay, sorry,” said Red, breaking the silence. “I want to ask you another question. See, I’ve always heard this rumour... about you...”

“The one about me having no mother?”

Red went into a stunned silence, and then nodded, slightly guiltily. This was a piece of gossip that no one has ever dared to bring up around Silver, but Red knew he had to ask the moment he heard about it.

“I– I mean, I just wanted to tell you that it’s nothing to feel bad about, uh... I don’t have a mother either. So I get it. It’s kind of terrible.”

Silver turned towards him with curious eyes. “You don’t?”

“Yeah. She died when I was a little kid, I remember bits and pieces of those times...” Red’s eyes glazed over, before they snapped back at Silver. “I bet it’s something people have been spreading around behind my back, too. I really loved her, Silver, I miss her and I want her back. But I never knew what really happened to her, and... Honestly? Sometimes I think it was my dad who caused it.”

Silver realised just how personal Red was getting with him, and he sighed. He decided to tell Red about himself too, seeing as Red was the first one to bravely confront him about it.

“Let me tell you the truth: I do have a mother, she’s alive and well. Though I never acknowledge her as my mother, because she was never there. Not that I hate her, but she’s just very... materialistic. She abandoned my dad because he gave up his career, and she’s married to some other rich guy now. And now she wants to take me back!” Silver laughed. “I’m never moving in with her, or her rich husband’s ass. I tell you, I fucking hate the social class gap. Rich people thinking they’re better for having money when they do _nothing_. They aren’t worth shit.

“Sorry,” he quickly added, “I don’t mean you specifically, but... you aren’t exactly an exception.”

Red suddenly felt like a line was being drawn between the two of them. Red finally felt like they became closer after mutually sharing so much personal stuff, but he realised that his own family wealth had already created an impenetrable barrier between them.

He sat there sullenly, watching Silver eat. For once in his entire life, Red began to loathe being rich.

Finally, he opened his mouth.

“Another question.”

“Yes?” It was like Silver gave up being exasperated.

“Why do you always act like you can’t stand the sight of me?”

Silver stared at Red as if he was looking at an idiot. “What do you think?”

“But, like,” Red explained, “You never pay attention to me. Whenever I do something nice you just shove me away.”

“You tore out my essay for no reason,” growled Silver. “Now our language teacher always gives me the evil eye, and it’s your fault.”

“I just really admired your handwriting, so I took a page to copy it from. You should be honoured.”

“Honoured?!” Silver couldn’t believe his nerve. “That’s not all you did, by the way. You cut holes in my jacket while I was sleeping in class.”

“You’re the one who stitched your white jacket with black thread. According to you, _’like a cow’_.” Red flashed a playful grin. “I was just helping you achieve the ‘cow’ look you were talking about.”

Silver sideways glanced at him. “Screw you...”

“You’re the one who took my black thread and stitched up the neck of my jacket when I took it off. Ms. Greta shooed me out of the class because I wasn’t wearing a shirt...”

“Who told you to take off your shirt, anyway? It’s your fault you decided to show off during gym class.”

“It’s also your fault that you cursed at Miss Erika. _’Get lost, bastard!’_ ” imitated Red, who then doubled up with laughter. “And you saw her face too, right?”

“Fuck!! That was because you kept bothering me during class! How the hell was I supposed to know it was Miss Erika?”

Red had a triumphant expression on his face, which made Silver curse under his breath.

“But. I will never forget the toilet paper incident,” said Silver, with a sly smile.

Red made a sour face, but Silver heartlessly carried on.

“You were _so_  clever. I changed seats with Green so that you’d stop bothering me, but you took out a toilet roll and ‘dropped’ it... Guess that backfired.”

After ‘dropping’ the roll perfectly next to Silver’s table, he had proceeded to pick it up and walk back through the other side of the table, essentially wrapping Silver (and the unfortunate innocent bystander Green) in a thin layer of toilet paper.

_“Oh? How did that happen?” went Red, faking astonishment._

_“Red, you better stop this right now,” warned Green, narrowing his eyes._

_Red laughed amiably. “Sorry, Green, but you’d have to endure this for your best friend’s sake.”_

_Green tsked, while his friend continued to circle the two of them in layers of toilet paper. Green was about to rip the toilet paper apart when Silver stopped him._

_“Don’t tear it, don’t even touch it,” he whispered to Green. “I have a plan.”_

_Red had overlooked the fact that Silver and Green had a table-sized gap between them, so the toilet paper wrap was actually very loose. Silver could easily get out of his seat and take a step or two towards Green and simply lug it over his head - or even simpler, tear it off - but Silver had a more sinister plan._

_“Grant!” he yelled, calling out to a guy in front, who sat the closest to the classroom switches. “Switch on the fans!”_

_“?!” The guy was shocked by the sudden request, but he did it anyway, running over to the switch panel._

_Red quickly realised what Silver was trying to do and tried to tell his classmate to stop, but by then, he had already flipped the switch._

_When the fan was switched on, Silver lugged the toilet paper mess over his head, and then above Green. A big whirlwind had activated, and the ocean of toilet paper had flied up and blew right into Red’s face._

Red tried to hide his face, groaning, though Silver’s face was a smug one.

Suddenly, Red’s face got up in a flash.

“Then what about when you put lubricating-freaking-oil on my desk? And on the window sill? And messed with the lock?”

Silver laughed. He had spent his entire daily allowance on that bottle of useless black liquid, spreading it over Red’s desk so that he’d have to go out to wash it off, and then tampering with the door lock to lock him out. He had even considered the possibility of Red trying to enter by the window, hence the application of said lubricant oil on the window sill. The effort had paid off, because Silver then heard an incredible crash coming from outside the window, and god, was it satisfying.

“Guess who called the security room to say someone fainted in the classroom,” added Red, folding his arms proudly. “Sorry for that.”

Silver looked the other way, failing to hold back a sigh.

Too bad he had stuck a sticky note that read ‘Copyrighted by Silver’ on the doorknob. That was what got him in trouble with the Security Director.

“You even tried to distract me during class today... too bad I’m not falling for that again, be more creative next time.”

Red smiled strangely. “You want a next time?”

Silver quickly realised his mistake. “No!!” he exclaimed. “I’m– okay, look.”

He looked at Red with sad, exhausted eyes.

“It was fun, I’ll admit it, but I really can’t do this anymore. Just tell me how I’ve offended you, and I’ll apologise.”

Just by those words, and the way they left his lips, Red could tell just how tired Silver was of this game already, and he knew why. While Red was rich, Silver was not, and while red had his pocket money, Silver could not afford to mess around anymore. If Red had a jacket cut up, he could easily replace it the next day, while Silver still had to wear the same one every day. Red could easily pay for a broken door lock, but Silver probably had to sacrifice two days’ worth of meals for it.

Red decided that it really might be too cruel to carry on with the torture for such frivolous things.

“I guess I can stop,” he said, appearing very indifferent about it. “Why not.”

Silver let out a huge sigh, as if heaving hurricane winds out of his mouth.

“Finally, thank you,” he said, sounding intensely grateful. “My mental health depends on this.”

Red grinned. “Yep. I think I’ve had enough fun with you.”

Silver rolled his eyes. “Jerk.”

There was a pause, before Silver decided to awkwardly elbow him in the chest, causing Red to burst out in laughter. Miraculously, Silver found himself laughing along, too.

Their mutual laughter seemed to have officially marked their truce, as well as the end of their prank war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These idiots,, are way too cute
> 
> I hope my way of portraying Red is accurate enough... I know he was never really shown as a trickster sort of guy, but I really, really wanted to see him try :'D He tries getting Silver in trouble, but it backfires on him; he gets outplayed by Silver many times even though he managed to land a few blows. I thought that would be a fun thing to fit his character into, so tell me if you have any opinions on that! Please!!


	3. Dumbass Infiltration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold didn't really know what he was doing, either; but somehow, it worked.

On an otherwise normal Wednesday morning, Green was idling in his class after his lessons, just being himself, when a stranger strolled into the classroom out of nowhere, completely uninvited or accompanied by anyone.

He locked eyes with Green, and then he broke his gaze, looking down at his headphones and plaid shirt. Ah, yes, Green’s trademark, something that everyone in this school knew about by then.

Green didn’t expect the guy to actually walk towards him, though. Half of the guy looked like a ruffian who was about to beat him up, but the other half looked like an adorable little puppy wanting to play fight with him. Green chose to focus on the latter.

They continued to lock gazes for a while, wordlessly.

“Green Oak...” the guy finally said, appearing to mull over the name for a few seconds. “Your name sounds like someone wanted to name a tree but got lazy.”

Green was stunned. He had never met anyone who would walk right up to his face for the sole purpose of shaming him. He never met anyone who dared.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“...My name’s Gold,” he replied, maintaining wary eye contact with him. “From 2-G.”

“Oh. Never heard of you.”

They continued to stare at each other, one with a threatening glare, and the other with a distant, unmoving gaze.

“You’re really as cold as they say,” said Gold, his voice full of contempt.

Well, Green was already used to being hated on by the other guys, who thought Green wouldn’t know about it because they muttered about him in the hallways. It was his way of life, so he looked rather bored after the first few seconds, which agitated Gold even further.

Gold folded his arms. “Honestly, I’m pretty pissed off at you right now. Because of _you_ , none of the girls I’ve tried to chase have even looked at me. Even the guys I like are all over you!”

Green raised an eyebrow at him. “...the guys you _like_?”

Immediately, Gold scowled at him, his face going slightly pink. Was Green looking down on him for liking guys now? The nerve?!

Actually, Green was really impressed with how open he was being about it. It wasn’t like his extremely gay self was any better.

“...that’s not the point,” said Gold, quickly switching the subject. “What is it that _you_ have that makes everyone love you so much? What the hell’s your secret?”

Green began to laugh. _First you insult me, then you start demanding me for advice? Who do you think you are?_

Okay, he admitted that this was a first – someone approaching him about his ‘love technique’. It was about time, really.

“You really want to know?” he asked, leaning backwards on his chair.

“Well, duh.” Gold folded his arms, waiting in anticipation.

“The truth is... I have no secret.”

The moment of ultimate revelation, utterly spoiled for Gold, who then rolled his eyes. “Pff, as if I believe that.”

“I’m telling the truth,” said Green with a chuckle. “I don’t do anything at all, and people are just naturally attracted to me. All I have to do is to be confident, and be myself. It’s how it is.”

“So you’re tryna tell me it’s something you’re naturally born with?” Gold seemed sceptical.

“Pretty much,” Green remarked with a smug smile. “I don’t think you look _that_  bad, really. You just... you have that girly and cute kind of feel?”

Green looked at Gold closely. The guy was actually rather handsome, but there was a cutesy side to his features. His big, shining eyes, for starters, and his features that only looked bold because his expressions kept it that way. Otherwise, Gold looked more like a tomboy more than anything.

Green saw Gold seethe with anger, and he felt kind of bad.

“I mean, there are some girls who are into that,” he said. “Especially the guys.”

Gold gritted his teeth. “Don’t you fucking dare –”

“Gold, don’t bother with him anymore.”

Both of them recognised that passive, tired voice from anywhere. They turned around to see Silver walking down the aisle, back to his table.

“Even if he has secrets,” he continued, “He won’t tell you.”

He sat himself down lightly. Gold rushed over behind him, attacking his shoulders, causing him to yell.

“You know each other?” asked Green, genuinely surprised.

“He’s my best friend, got it?” Gold proudly announced, hugging Silver’s neck. “You mess with me if you wanna mess with him.”

“I’ve known him since we were kids,” said Silver. “Don’t worry, he’s always been this way. Don’t take it to heart, he’s got no hard feelings.”

“I’ve got all the hard feelings!” protested Gold. “He’s stealing all of my potential lovers!”

“You can have them back,” said Green, “I’m just not sure if they want to leave me for you.”

“Screw you,” spat Gold.

Then, Green began to laugh. He laughed so hard that his classmates started giving him weird looks. He broke his usually cold demeanour for about half a minute, tainting his cultivated image, just because of some dumbass who decided to infiltrate his classroom one day.

This was the best thing that had happened to him in this entire week.

**~~~~**

Gold stormed out of class 2-A, feeling bitter about himself.

God, did Gold want to be somebody as popular as Green, but he knew he worked a completely different way from him. Gold was sensible enough to know that he couldn’t be the cold, imposing type without looking stupid, and at the same time, he couldn’t accept the idea of getting people to chase him instead of the other way round. In short, he wasn’t about to try to copy his behaviour, action for action.

He hated admitting defeat, but it looked like he’d have to do it this time. He thought that maybe he should give up on trying to get into a relationship, and actually focus on his studies for once. Maybe then he’d have something he could hold a candle to Green.

He entertained himself with the thought as he silently made his way back to class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even really know what to say, other than the fact that Gold is adorable and I love him...


	4. Like Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A whole chapter, dedicated to Red and Silver’s relationship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter!!
> 
> The summary says it all. Enjoy!

The ringing of an alarm clock pierced the silence of the drowsy, early-morning neighbourhood.

Silver woke up in his bed. There was a moment of simple bliss where his mind still thought it was just another ordinary weekday morning. It told him to scram out of the bed and get ready for school.

Silver tried to get up, attempting to roll out of bed but finding himself unable to move, held back by some elastic force that refused to let him go. Then he realised that this force was Red’s arms, which were tightly wrapped around him. Silver didn’t even remember letting him to that, but... It was too early for Silver to engage in any analytical thought processes. Sighing, mercilessly tossing Red’s arm aside, he pulled himself out of the bed and tried to shake off his morning drowsiness.

He heard Red groan behind him. Deciding to not give a damn, he headed for the bathroom.

Silver was just minding his own business when the bathroom door suddenly squeaked open.

“Red, what the hell?! Knock first!” screamed a very cranky Silver.

“Mornin’,” yawned Red, ignoring any signs that Silver was at least bothered with him, going over behind Silver to hug him from the back.

“Excuse you. You’re not allowed to touch me. Hands off.”

Red seemed to have forgotten what constituted appropriate behaviour, and simply squeezed him tighter.

“So soft...” he murmured into his ear. “Can we keep sleepin’...”

Silver nearly punched him in the face.

“Since you want to use the toilet so badly, fine. Suit yourself, _my guest_.”

In a fit of rage, Silver stomped out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Half an hour later, both of them were finally ready for school. Usually, Silver only needed five minutes to get ready, ten minutes at most, but thanks to the other guy it looked like he’d have to skip breakfast today.

As they were about to leave, Silver’s father walked into the living room, surprised that the two boys were still there.

“Why are you still here?” asked Giovanni, slightly bewildered. “Don’t you have school?”

Giovanni was an interesting specimen among middle-aged men. He looked tough, intimidating, and had a face that would scare off elementary-school children with one look. He practically looked like the definition of Powerful Gang Leader. Except now he looked tired, in his ragged home clothes, looking like a regular nice old man you’d find in the streets. And he wasn’t a gang leader, but a – more or less – honest, hardworking man. At least, he wasn’t a gang leader _anymore_.

Silver knew about his father being an ex-triad boss or whatever, but he honestly didn’t care. All he cared about was the fact that Giovanni had to choose between his career and his son, and he had thrown away his career, choosing the life of a construction site manager to provide for Silver, and to give him a family he could grow up with. For that, Silver was willing to stick with him through thick and thin, no matter what.

 “Good morning, sir! We were just about to leave!” Red greeted Giovanni with a large smile, which irritated Silver. Red was acting so polite, so cheerful and friendly towards his dad, when he couldn’t even offer Silver the decency of giving him some private space!?

“Alright, take your time. You’re not late yet.”

But not early enough to get breakfast... something Silver always looked forward to in the mornings...

“I’m sorry you had to share a bed with Silver tonight,” Giovanni continued. “If you don’t mind the state of our house, you can come back again, I don’t mind.”

“Don’t worry,” said Red, giving him an eyeless smile. “Back home, the state of the house is worse! It’s constantly messy, and our hot water doesn’t even work sometimes... oh, and thank you for the hot shower yesterday!”

Silver skilfully suppressed the urge to laugh. There were two main causes of the laughter; firstly, Red had dived into a freezing pond yesterday to fish out Silver’s wallet. He got out of the pond shivering, his teeth chattering, and his crappy dinosaur phone now spoilt from being soaked in the water. That was why Silver brought him home after all, because he felt bad about it.

Not because he wanted to share a bed with Red... Why would he want to put himself through that hell for no reason?

Secondly, Red was trying to act like a pauper, even though he was the young master of a rich family, and Giovanni actually believed him.

Silver didn’t expect his father to fall for his ruse. Even if he hadn’t known Red was rich, he was perceptive enough to notice that Red wasn’t, in fact, poor, just from his mannerisms. The way Red handled his things as if he could throw one out and replace it any time he wanted, the way he tiptoed in the bathroom when Silver needed to show him how to turn the hot water. The way Red fiddled with the shower device, as if it were too primitive for the luxurious lifestyle he was used to. Red was clearly nowhere near poor.

“Take care of yourself,” said Giovanni, stiffly but not unkindly. “Don’t jump into ponds when it’s freezing out. The weather is getting colder now.”

There was a weird kind of tension between the two guys, felt especially by Silver. Seeing Red and Giovanni interact was like two alpha males, uneasy with each other, yet at the same time sharing some sort of mutual respect?

“People like us have to stick together,” Giovanni continued. “Silver, you take care of Red too, okay?”

“Yes, Dad,” Silver replied.

He was trying really hard not to laugh, because his father really did treat him as a fellow pauper. It was ridiculous! It was like watching a comedy show without a TV. Red was making a fool of himself; Silver already knew of his status, so why was he trying so hard to impress his only family?

Yet, for this reason, this guy had moved into a shoddy rental home next to Silver’s neighbourhood, considered decent by the area’s standards but next to nothing compared to Red’s original abode. He had changed his phone into a cheaper, crappier one, took off his branded watch and sold it, buying only the cheapest food he could find...

It suddenly hit Silver that Red had essentially made himself live in a shithole, just so that he could get closer to him.

Silver didn’t quite know what to feel about that.

**~~~~**

They were on the road to school now. Silver sat on the back of Red’s second-hand bicycle, his back defiantly facing Red’s.

“Why are you sitting like that?” asked Red, sounding annoyed. “Turn around.”

“No. I don’t want to see your face.”

Red laughed. “I’m facing forward, idiot.”

“Correction, I don’t want to see you, period. Besides, you keep turning around to look at me.”

“Then I’ll stop turning around.”

“No, I don’t trust you to do that.”

“Come on, it’s dangerous to sit that way...”

“I think you should focus on the road.”

“Well, I think you should –”

“Wait! Is that a candied-fruit stall?”

Red looked back, peering into the distance.

“I think so?”

“Stop! I’m getting one.”

“...!!”

Before Red could say anything, Silver had already hopped off the back of the seat, heading towards the street vendor.

Sulking, Red followed the guy, watching him eye the candied-fruits. His silvery eyes lit up with a rare, innocent kind of joy, and while it warmed Red’s heart, it also made him feel immensely sour. What was so good about street foods like this, anyway, to the point of them being more important to Silver than he was?

Still crackling with jealousy, Red eventually led him back onto the bicycle. Unsurprisingly, Silver still decided to sit with his back facing Red.

What was surprising, though, was what he said next.

“Do you want some?”

A hesitant pause.

“Nah,” said Red, sounding casual enough. “I’m not hungry.”

“Shame. Whenever I hang out with Gold, we always eat and share a whole lot of food together. It’s great, he knows where all the good food are.”

Was Silver using psychological tactics with him?! Now Red really wanted to try a piece, but another part of him didn’t want to lose to him...

Suddenly, the stick was shoved in front of his face, taunting him to eat from it.

“Take a bite,” said Silver coolly.

_Urgh, fine._  Red leaned forward and chomped on it – except he didn’t actually bite it, only swallowing thin air. Red leaned even further, and even further again, and that was when he realised Silver was messing with him.

“You...!” In one quick movement, Red grabbed the stick, moving it close to his mouth and then forcefully biting a piece of fruit off.

He chewed it for a few seconds. “Hey, this is pretty good.”

“You can have more,” said Silver, holding the stick in front of him again.

“How nice of you,” joked Red, taking another bite of the irritating snack. Strangely, it was the most delicious candy he had eaten in a long, long time.

**~~~~**

Class 2-A had a lesson in the chemistry lab today, so they filed out of the classrooms and into the corridors. Green tagged alongside Red, who was busy chatting to Silver.

_Since when did the two of you get so close?_

“Yo, Silver! What are you doing here?” shouted somebody, out of nowhere.

This voice was strangely familiar to Green...

A raven-haired, golden-eyed boy came jogging up to them, tapping Silver on the shoulder.

“Hey, Gold,” said Silver, a slight smile on his face. “We’re having a lab lesson right now.”

“Oh, I see...” Gold’s eyes flickered to Green. “Oh, you’re here, too.”

Green subconsciously cracked a small smile. “Hello.”

Gold was immediately pissed off. What was the meaning of a smile like that? Did he find Gold funny? Did he see him as a fucking joke?!

_You think you’re so popular..._

“How come I’m the only one who doesn’t know you?” asked Red, with a big smile. “Hey. Your name’s Gold, right?”

“Yeah,” Gold grinned back. “From 2-G. And you are...?”

“Red. I’m both their friends.” Red hooked his arms around both Silver and Green. “How’d you know Silver?”

“They’re childhood friends,” Green cut in. “Let’s go, everyone’s waiting.”

The other two said their goodbyes, and then quickly walked off together.

**~~~~**

Green and Red sat next to each other as lab partners.

“Psst,” went Red, nudging Green while they did their work. “You’re familiar with Gold, right?”

“Don’t ask me how he’s like,” said Green quickly. “I don’t know anything, I barely even know him.”

“Eh?”

“He’s the dumbass who approached me that day, asking for romance advice right after insulting me?” Green chuckled. “That guy is so stupid.”

Red chuckled. “He’s pretty good-looking, you know. I think you’d make a good couple.”

Green eyed him warily.

“There is sulfuric acid in the lab. I will splash it on your face.”

Red puffed up his chest. “There are _many_ bottles of sulfuric acid in the lab. You’re not the only one with it here!”

Green gave him a threatening stare. “Are you challenging me?”

The two boys were this close to landing themselves in a hospital that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _A wild Red appears!_
> 
> _Green used Acid!_
> 
> _It missed... (On purpose.)_
> 
> _Red used Acid!_
> 
> _It missed... (Barely.)_
> 
> _An angry lab teacher stopped the fight!_
> 
> Fun fact: In the original novel, instead of candied fruit, it was haw candy. However, westerners probably won’t know what it is, so I replaced it with candied fruit, since they are sort of similar...
> 
> I felt like I may have information-dumped a lot in this chapter. Let me know if it’s difficult to read, haha


	5. Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An angry, out-of-control Green is not the one anyone would ever want to have to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a long chapter again!! Hooray for ignoring my academic responsibilities!
> 
> Enjoy :)

A few weeks had passed since the Dumbass Infiltration incident, and Green still couldn’t stop thinking about it. Sometimes, he would start to smile abnormally during classes, to the point that it even scared his teachers.

Green felt like he was having an obsession. He had actually marked that day on his calendar, and he didn't even really know why - mostly because of that guy, Gold, his name, and the dysfunctional conversation he had with him - the experience was just so damn priceless that he couldn't get it out of his head.

Unfortunately, the past few days had been a painfully slow crawl. Nothing since the Dumbass Infiltration had entertained him as much; he wondered if there was anything else that could happen that would actually beat that experience.

Today, however, he at least had something mildly exciting to do. Mildly excited was quite an understatement for that, because Green could hardly wait for recess to start.

When it did, Green immediately strolled over to Red’s seat, tapping his table lightly.

“Hey, Red,” he said. “I’m going back to my hometown for the weekend. Stay over at my house this time, Grandpa wants to see you again.”

The two of them used to grow up together in the same quaint, little town, but Red had moved out of the state. That was the main reason why Green decided to study all the way out here in high school - frankly, it was because of Red. It was a fact that Green had always been a little embarrassed about.

Since Green’s home was so far away, he was one of the many students who stayed at the school dorms. As a result, he wasn’t allowed to ever leave the school campus, according to the rules. That excluded the weekends, of course.

Upon hearing the invitation, Red’s eyes lit up. He too was missing his hometown, and wanted to visit Green’s renowned-professor-grandfather after so many years.

Red was about to accept his invitation when Silver had quickly interrupted.

“Wait,” he said, rather passively, though there was an edge of worry in his voice that Green could hear. “Red, you promised we’d go shop for furniture during the weekend.”

 _If that doesn’t sound like an excuse, I don’t know what does._  Green narrowed his eyes at him.

“Really?” he asked, glaringly sceptical about it. He expected Silver to be better than that.

Silver gave Green a look that suggested contempt, and Green was about to say something about it when Red cut in.

“Yeah,” he piped in, completely unaware of the strange atmosphere between the two guys. “We’re going to help his dad pick out new furniture, right, Silver?”

Silver nodded, glancing once at Green with another dubious expression.

“Why would you guys even be getting furniture...” he muttered, heading back to his seat.

“I’m really sorry,” said Red, giving him the sad puppy face. “Tell you what – I’ll get a present for Professor Oak. Tell him I said hi, okay?”

Green shrugged, seemingly indifferent about, it even though he was burning deep, deep inside.

Why were they suddenly being all buddy-buddy now? Just a few days ago, they couldn’t stop torturing each other, but now, they’ve been arriving in class together, walking home together... They’d become so close, all because of those stupid pranks?!

He sat down at his seat, seething, beginning to bore a hole into his worksheet with his glare alone.

**~~~~**

A wild, unrestrained train of thought had been running around Green’s head.

It went something like this:

Green had been waiting to have some quality time with Red for months now, and Silver ruined that. He and Red used to be the best of friends, they were inseparable - Green had come all the way here for this school, just to recreate those memories with Red again, just to create more. He knew that trying to relive the past was a stupid idea, but he couldn’t help himself, couldn’t help but long for that kinship after years of empty isolation. Green had, naively, saved that space for Red and Red only, but what did that ever truly do for him?

Other than cause unnecessary pain and insecurity for himself?

Green felt sour, bitter and salty all at once, all churning in his stomach. It was about to give him indigestion.

At the same time, an incredibly reckless thought came crashing in.

Since Green couldn’t ever do anything mean to his own best friend, since Silver was the one preventing him from Red’s affection, he was the one he could target. But there was no way Red would forgive him if he ever harmed Silver -

Then he suddenly remembered something.

_He’s my best friend, got it? You mess with me if you wanna mess with him._

Another thought occurred to him, and he smiled to himself. It was the perfect revenge.

He’d have to harass Silver's best friend, then.

He knew that it didn’t sound like the smart, sensible or mature thing to do, but it ate at him anyway, boiling and bubbling in his burning heart, steeling his resolve.

**~~~~**

Classes had ended for the day. People were starting to leave, but Gold was now part of the half of the students who decided to stay back in school to finish their work and study. Gold had always thought that this culture was strange... who wanted to stay back in school, anyway? But it turned out that the classroom really was a conducive study environment, as a school is intended to be, and it made doing work so much more efficient. Besides, it was actually kind of nice to have his classmates accompanying him too.

Lessons had only just ended, so Gold decided to reward himself with a snack. He pulled out a bag of chips, tearing the thing open and helping himself to the savoury snacks. His classmates around him began to crowd around him, asking for a chip, which Gold generously gave out.

“Gold!”

A familiar voice boomed within the classroom, and immediately, the class went quiet.

They looked up at the front door to see Crys, the girl he dubbed “The Super-Serious Class Representative”, searching the classroom with her eyes, until they stopped at Gold.

“Gold. Green is outside the classroom, saying he wants to see you now.”

 _Green Oak?_  thought Gold. Why was he here? Was he still angry over that thing?

His classmates looked at him, as if wondering, that Green Oak? Gold was friends with _him_?

Shuffling his feet, Gold headed out of the class, bag of chips and all.

“Yo, what’s up?” he said, as he caught a glimpse of Green round the corner.

Green scoffed the moment his eyes rested on him. Suddenly, he grabbed Gold by the collar, pulling him down the stairs, without even giving Gold a chance to question him.

“W-wait!” Gold finally managed to speak, but by then, Green had already shoved him into some musty corridor.

Gold peered around at his surroundings and shuddered. He didn’t even know this place even existed, but it was dark, dusty, and extremely creepy. Nobody was there, and other than the ambient noise it seemed like nobody was around for miles. But what really made it so unsettling was that the portraits of all the ex-principals were framed there, the late founder in the centre, who seemed to stare into Gold’s soul.

Gold looked back at Green and realised that the guy had him cornered, walking closer and closer as Gold inched backwards further and further, until he had him against the wall. Gold was way too freaked out to run away.

_Oh shit, Green is actually going to beat me up..._

All he could do was hold his potato chip bag out in front of him, fashioning it into a (very ineffective) shield. Green flicked it away with a single hand, nearly causing Gold to drop it.

“The hell were you doing cooping yourself in that classroom all day?” sneered Green, poking at Gold’s chest. “Didn’t life give you legs to walk around with? You're just lazy. Look at yourself, wearing this childish fucking hoodie to school.”

Gold glanced down at his hoodie, feeling a little hurt. It was a perfectly comfortable Pikachu sweater, and he decided to wear it to school this one time...

Green wasn’t stopping there, though. He had to find more reasons to scorn Gold, make it look as convincing as possible. He took one more look at his bag of chips and scoffed again.

“You full from that yet?” he mocked him. “Stuffed yourself yet? Look at your mouth, there’s fucking crumbs everywhere, don’t you know chips are junk food? Don’t you know junk food isn’t good for you? Don't you have _any_ regard for your personal health?”

“...uh, what –”

“I’m telling you now, Gold – just by _looking_ at you, I can tell you’re filthy inside, you're a sick, vile creature. You’re not even worthy of being called human. What are you looking at me for? What, you jealous of how pure I am? You’re just some putrid, rotting trash smelling like shit in a garbage bin somewhere, making life difficult for everyone who gets anywhere near you. You give me a fucking headache, you know that? Don’t think that I don’t know you’ve done those terrible things, you’re such a fucking lowlife, I see it all. You’re fucking shameless, that’s what you are...”

Gold stared at him blankly, his hand still halfway inside the bag of chips. Green hurled insult after insult at him, but the insults did nothing but confuse him even more. Gold wasn’t even insulted at that point.

The first question was, when was the beating going to start? What?

“Dude, are you okay?” was another question, which he decided to ask. “You need to see a doctor or something? I’ll bring you to the school clinic –”

Gold grabbed him by the arm, but Green reacted in character quickly, responding by clicking his tongue angrily, and brushing his hand away. Gold gave him an appalled look.

_Seriously, did I even offend him that badly?_

He could feel the late founder’s portrait glaring at them, as if saying, _I did not build this school for this nonsense!_

For a brief moment, Green stared at him in a dangerous silence.

“Come to my place for the weekend,” he said, then abruptly jabbing Gold’s forehead with a finger.

 _What the fuck?_  Gold rubbed his forehead in pain. _Is that what this is about?_

“Are you coming?” he asked.

“You’re coming, right?” he asked again.

“You’re not coming?!” Green jabbed Gold in the forehead again.

Gold simply blinked, being completely astounded by Green.

“Dude, calm down,” he said, while Green continued to mindlessly rage at him. “Have a snack.”

He wedged a chip into Green’s open mouth. The sudden gesture surprised him, and actually shut him up.

Green chewed it in his mouth, slowly, carefully, and with intent. He somehow managed to make the crunching noises sound powerful and elegant.

Gold clenched his teeth, trying not to get jealous.

After a while, Green seemed to have finally calmed down, and reverted back into his normal, reserved state.

Gold heaved a sigh of relief. The demon that had possessed this guy just now was finally appeased.

And all it took was a potato chip?!

Green continued to stare at Gold for a couple of seconds, before the latter eventually got bored and, seeing as there was nothing more to be said, ducked around Green and made a swift escape.

“Wait,” Green called out suddenly, scaring the other guy.

“Yeah?” Gold replied, forcing a smile but bracing for impact.

_Don't tell me that was only round one..._

“...can I have another one?”

Green pointed to the bag of chips.

“...”

Gold eventually walked back to his class, absolutely furious.

_I just got fucking scolded for nothing?!_

Little did Gold know that this was nowhere near the end of it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m crying, I made Green go utterly insane just now
> 
> The plan is he's just trying to come up with some wacky way of traumatising Gold he's just spewing shit he feels nothing for and he eventually gets carried away...?
> 
> Edit: here's a proper explanation I typed up since I figured I should put it here too, (it'll be in chapter 13 too!)
> 
> Plot-wise I needed Gold to have a Valid Reason to hate Green.
> 
> I wanted Green's 'outburst' to be acted and like, done for the sake of being done because that's Green's dumb plan, to confuse and offend the shit out of Gold? Not because he's actually angry but just petty?? but then I realised it was written in Gold's perspective so that complicated things??? I added a bIT to it to make it seem more cold-hearted than actual anger but eh I can't do very much now.
> 
> Character-wise I knew Green was kind of impulsive in the first place, and I didn't want him to directly do the violence with Gold so... psychological tactics
> 
> tldr: I fucked up


	6. Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red was finally getting used to the neighbourhood. Then Silver's mother suddenly appeared...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, I made a small edit to the previous chapter: just the addition of a sentence at the end!
> 
> It's a minor change, really, but did this because before this, Green’s ‘plan’ was kind of vague and ambiguous, like it was a one-off thing. It’s not like Green came up with an elaborate plan or anything, but he has put some thought into it. Hopefully the addition of the last sentence cleared it up a bit!

Only shortly after his arrival, Red had already gotten to know the neighbourhood fairly quickly.

“Madam! I noticed that you’ve been looking really pale for the past few days, so I brought you some herbal soup... it’s good for you!”

“Granny, look, I got this backrest support for you! I know your back hasn’t been doing so well, isn’t sitting with this so much better?”

“Hey kid, that’s not how you catch a butterfly! Here, I’ll show you...”

“Sir, don’t worry about the medicine anymore, I’ve called up the delivery service to bring them to your house every week. It’ll save you the time!”

Silver realised one day that Red had become insanely popular among the neighbours, and he knew why. Red had essentially bought his way into their hearts, presenting gifts and offering favours that he could easily afford or ask someone else to do.

Clever.

Giovanni was tiling the roof one day, standing on the tallest rung of the ladder, just barely reaching over the top of the house, holding a mortar pan. Red was walking home with Silver when he spotted him. He stopped in his tracks, watching him for a few seconds.

“Hello, sir!” Red suddenly called out to him. “Do you need help with that?”

“Oh... hello,” said Giovanni, turning to look at them. “Thank you, Red, but it’s fine. I can do this by myself.”

“Let him do it,” said Silver with mild contempt. “He’s been eating and sleeping at our house for free, anyway. Let him do some work around here.”

“Ah... alright then. Sorry to trouble you, Red.”

He slowly made his way down the ladder, and passed Red the mortar pan, which Red happily received.

“Do you even treat your own family this well?” he asked in a snarky tone.

Red laughed dryly. “My dad can go screw himself. He caused my mom’s death, and you know what? Now he’s telling me, he’s marrying some other bitch. I hate them, they can buy stuff for themselves.”

“Harsh. Your dad just found new love, that’s all.”

“Yeah, after getting rid of his previous one.”

“...”

**~~~~**

Since the wind wasn’t in their favour, Red and Silver went home together by foot, with Red pushing the bicycle at one side, and Silver at the other.

It was a fairly silent journey. Silver never had that much to say, and Red was perfectly content with Silver’s consenting company as it was. Red admitted that it could get kind of boring and awkward after a while, though.

“Who’s your ideal type, Silver?” he asked, suddenly.

“...what?”

“What do you look for in a girl?” Red asked again. “Or guy? What kind of person do you find attractive, basically?”

Silver thought it over for a while. “Someone flirty, I guess. Someone who isn’t afraid to say what they feel.”

“Oh, really?” Red smiled. “Then I’ll tell you about mine. I like people who are independent, self-aware, strong-willed... and intelligent, of course.”

“Sounds a lot like Green,” Silver casually commented, which made Red laugh.

“You know something funny? I used to really fancy Green when we were younger.”

“...really?”

“Yeah. But we were really close and he was kind of my only friend, so I... didn’t want to risk it... and well, the feelings just faded after a while. It just did.”

“Oh...”

Subconsciously, Silver turned away, eyeing the pavement with a strange intensity.

Red noticed, and began to smirk.

“Jealous?”

Silver’s head snapped back at him. “Why the hell would I be jealous?”

Red chuckled. “You know, you’re the only one who’s really made me feel this way.”

“...not even Green?”

“Nope. You’re the only one I’ve wanted to bully so much.” Red pinched Silver’s cheek. “See? You’re so cute...”

Silver quickly flicked his hand away, and shot him a look. “Don’t do that.”

Red pinched his cheek again, grinning.

This time, Silver was clearly annoyed.

“No, really. I hate being pinched.”

Red was relentless, and reached his hand out again. Silver quickly slapped it away.

“Are you deaf?!” yelled Silver, which resulted in Red’s laughter.

Red suddenly reached out another hand, not aiming for his cheek but the bottom of his jaw, which he stroked tenderly. Silver froze, and the both of them stood still on the pavement, staring at each other.

Red leaned forward slowly, his hands creeping down Silver’s arms, wrapping his clenched fists. Their lips were barely centimetres apart... Silver’s heart skipped a beat, but at the same time, danger alarms were sounding in his head, and he wasn’t sure of what to feel anymore. In a fit of panic, he pushed Red away, causing him to topple over.

Red fell onto the pavement with a loud thump.

“Shit!” cried Silver, going down to help him up. “I’m sorry...”

“I’m fine,” Red brushed down his shirt. “It’s the bicycle, it fell down the slope.”

Silver looked over his shoulder. The slope was steep, and from the side of the road went all the way down, then into the drain, where the bicycle now lay, in the water, which had dead leaves floating around in.

Red, who had also seen the bicycle, immediately turned back to Silver. “Don’t worry,” he quickly said, “It’s nothing. I’ll go get it, it won’t take long, just stay here!”

Red immediately walked down the slope, carefully making his way down the path that he determined was the least steep. Silver could only stare at the back of his jacket in silence.

Why had he pushed him away? It wasn’t like he was opposed to Red, not anymore. For some reason, Silver began to fantasise about what could’ve happened if he didn’t, and went a little pink from the thought.

“Silver, what are you doing here?”

Silver recognised the woman’s voice. His immediate reaction was to freeze, as if it would hide him, as if she couldn’t see anything that wasn’t moving, as if she had a frog’s vision.

Unfortunately for Silver, it was not a frog. He heard a car stop before hearing her voice, and he already knew that it was some expensive car that she didn’t spend a single cent of her own on. He slowly turned around, facing his mother, who opened the door to walk towards him.

“Silver, why are you standing in the middle of the path?” His mother placed her hands on Silver’s shoulders, but they were shrugged away.

“I’m waiting for someone,” said Silver, firmly.

“Why did they make you stand next to a drain?! It’s so dirty... Here, I’ll fetch you home.”

Silver hated it when people were fussy with him. “Thank you,” he said, curtly, “but I can get home myself –”

“What are you doing here?”

Silver turned around to see that Red had already climbed up the slope, a wet, dripping bicycle in his hands. He stared at Silver’s mother in contempt.

“Red?” Silver’s mother seemed surprised. “You’re with Silver?

_...?!_

Did his mom just...?

“How do you know her?” Silver warily asked Red.

“She’s my stepmom,” said Red. “The one my dad remarried?”

Suddenly, Silver felt his tongue go numb.

“Red, she’s my birth mother.”

A blank look came over Red’s face.

“I can’t believe the two of you already know each other!” gushed Silver’s mother, seeming very pleased about it.

Silently, Silver turned away and walked off, stomping his footsteps slightly, as if in anger.

Red gave his stepmom a warning glare, and in a fit of annoyance, he threw the bicycle down in her direction before heading off.

~~~~

Red tried to catch up to Silver.

“Silver...”

The boy ignored him.

“Hey, Silver!” He ran in front of him, spreading his arms out in an attempt to block him.

Silver bared his teeth threateningly.

“Screw off.”

He pushed away Red’s shoulder, running past him without looking back.

“Silver!” Red desperately chased after him. “Wait! Why are you angry at me?”

They ran all the way to Silver’s house before he actually replied.

“Why the hell did you follow me home?” shouted Silver. “You think this is so funny, huh? Do you find it fun to hide it from me, pretending you’re poor, doing all this shit just to get close to me?”

“Silver, wait –”

“All you fucking do is make fun of me! All you do is-”

“SILVER!”

Red’s voice turned to thunder, shocking Silver into silence.

“How was I supposed to know that was your mother?” cried Red. “If I was really trying to trick you, why would I have announced it so loudly? Wouldn’t I have tried to hide it or something?”

Red had a point. Silver realised that the anger must have been messing with his head.

“I knew as much as you did,” Red continued. "I picked on you because I liked you, okay? I really, really like you.”

 _Like..._  Silver felt his heart sweeten a little.

“I should be the one being upset at you!” cried Red, poking his finger into Silver’s chest, and the sweet feeling dispersed. “Isn’t it your mother who got together with my dad? If anything, I’d be furious at you. How dare you make me like you so much?!”

“Filthy rich boy.” Silver made a sound of contempt. “You think you can get everything you want if you just wish it? Guess what, you can’t, and there is _nothing_  you can do about it. The world isn’t an oyster for you to buy out.”

He twisted the door knob, swinging the door open and stepped inside, struggling to keep the door shut as Red forced his way inside.

“Silver, _please_...”

“Stop it!” roared Silver, throwing the door open. “What do I even mean to you? Didn’t you love your mother so much? Weren’t you so angry that your father was remarrying some poor bitch? Huh? Didn’t you hate me and my fucking family?!”

“That’s _different_. Listen, Silver, even a thousand times of my hatred for her, will never even be anywhere close to how much I love you!”

The thunderous reply died down into dead silence.

“Don’t throw that word around,” said Silver, finally.

“...what?”

“Love. It’s disgusting when you say it.”

“I –”

“You get out.”

“Silver, no –”

“Get. Out.”

“I don’t care if you hate my family!” he cried, “Just don’t hate me...”

“I don’t hate your family,” said Silver, his voice unnaturally calm. “I don’t hate rich people. And I don’t hate you.”

“Then –”

“But I never want to see you again,” said Silver, tears pooling behind his eyes. “Don’t come see me, or anyone in this neighbourhood. Never come back.”

He slammed the door in his face.

~~~~

Red was a mess when he arrived at the entrance of the school’s hostel. Green, who had been informed via text message to meet up here, ran out, spotted him and quickly ran over.

“Hey, Red, what happened?” Red looked like he had been run over by a dumpster. He didn’t smell of alcohol, so he couldn’t have been drunk. It must have been something to do with his father.

Green led Red to his room.

“What happened?” he asked again, semi-gently sitting the shaken guy down onto his bed.

Immediately, Red burst into loud, ugly tears.

Green was taken aback. Red never cried so hard for something about his family, even in his dark, illegally drunk times, let alone when he was sober...

“Silver... he...” He choked out words in between his sobs. “He never wants to see me... ever again...”

 _Oh, shit._  ”Did you confess to him?”

Red violently shook his head. “It’s not... He’s... his... his mom...”

“Wait,” muttered Green, “Silver has a mom?”

Red burst into even louder tears, now shaking uncontrollably. Green had never seen his best friend work himself into such a mess before. It shocked him beyond words or solid emotions.

“Hey, hey... it’s alright...” said Green, even though he knew it wasn’t.

Suddenly, Red flung himself onto Green, wrapping his waist with his arms, then pulling him onto the bed. He sobbed into his stomach, grabbing at Green’s shirt.

“I love him, Green!” he screamed in agony. “I love him so much...”

The feeling was indescribable. On one hand, Green was numb with shock. How long has it been since he had last held his best friend like this? Emotions and old feelings were coming back him...

“He thinks I’m disgusting...” Red whispered, moving his face up towards Green’s. “Do you think I’m disgusting, Green? Do you ever find me disgusting?”

“Not at all, never.” He lied, because he couldn’t bear to tell him otherwise.

“But I am! Who told me to fall in love with another guy, anyway?! But I just wanted him... I want him so badly...”

Who the hell did Silver think he was? Green spent years pining for his best friend’s love, and now that Silver had it in his hands, the guy chose to throw it away?!

He was angry. Furious, in disbelief. He wanted to take Red all for himself, just to show Silver what he had abandoned.

But there was no way Red would accept him. He had Silver in his heart now, didn’t he?

He couldn’t take it out on Red... and he couldn’t take it out on Silver, either...

There was really only one person he could vent his anger out on.

Tonight only served to give Green another reason to see through what he had started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *pats Gold on the back* I am so sorry, young man,,


	7. Protection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold has resorted to seeking asylum from Green in Class 2-A. Somehow, hiding in the harasser’s domain worked...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was fun to write. Enjoy!

Silver did not come to school today.

Red was pretty sure he knew why. A part of him wanted to reassure himself, maybe Silver got sick, maybe it was just that the shock did a number on his immune system. But another part of him really believed that _he_ was the cause of his absence. Maybe Silver was so disgusted with him that he never wanted to see him ever again...

The thought of never being able to annoy him again. The thought of never being able to walk with him to and from school, never being able to sleep in the same bed as him... already, his experiences with Silver, although fresh in his mind, began to feel like distant memories he could only visit and reminisce once in a while, but never actually get to savour ever again.

This wasn’t part of the plan. This was never part of the plan. He wasn’t ever supposed to fall in love, he wasn’t ever supposed to get attached to a guy like this...

It made him anxious. It made him paranoid. It made him get jealous and it tore at his heart, it made him into a mess and suddenly, without Silver, Red couldn’t find a real direction in life anymore.

He was still sitting in his seat glumly when he heard somebody call out his name.

“Red!”

Faintly recognising the voice, Red looked up and at a boy with large, amber eyes. He knew only one person who had eyes like that.

“Hello, Gold,” he greeted, trying to be cheery, but he made it very obvious that he either couldn’t stand the sight of Gold, or was just very tired with life. “What’s up, man?”

“Did Silver come to school today?” asked Gold, which made Red’s heart crack a little more.

“No...” he mumbled, sinking into his seat.

“Ah,” Gold waved away, seeming remarkably indifferent to it. “Don’t worry, he does that a lot. It’s not like the teachers do anything, because his grades don’t drop at all?! It’s amazing.”

“Anyway,” he leaned onto his table, in a natural sort of way, like a girl would when she wanted to show interest in something. “I really, really need your help...”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Can you, uh, walk me back to my house today?”

Red blinked once at him. If he weren’t any wiser, he would’ve thought Gold was trying to hit on him. A classmate happened to walk by and gave them a weird look, before losing interest and walking away.

Then again, Gold didn’t look like he was trying to flirt; his smile seemed strained. There was a strange urgency in his voice, and desperation in his eyes... He looked like he was genuinely in need of help, which was why Red didn’t outright push him away.

“Why?” he then asked.

“Because,” Gold lamented, “I literally can’t even get a second of peace after dismissal without that Green Oak harassing me!”

Red hurriedly glanced around, searching the class, but there was no Green in sight. The guy was still in the washroom after all.

Gold pulled a face. “I’m serious! He comes to my classroom every day demanding to see me. The first time he did that, I thought he was gonna beat me up for being an eyesore, but no, he just keeps throwing insult after insult, and he’s been doing this _every day._  I would’ve asked Silver, but he isn’t here and I’m desperate here... I have to take refuge in your classroom from now on, please walk me home too –”

“Wait, hold on a minute. You’re saying Green would come to harass you every day... for no reason?”

It didn’t seem very characteristic of Green to do something like that.

“Yeah, exactly! He picks on some tiny fucking thing and explodes it into how filthy I am as a person. Whenever he sees me he fucking glares at me. It’s bullshit! And you wouldn’t want someone do that to you, would you? Because of that jerk, I’ve had to sprint out of the classroom first thing, and... I’m afraid that he’s gonna start stalking me back home... Please, Red!” Gold bowed his head. “Please save me from Green!”

This whole thing was completely new to Red. Was this the same Green that he was best friends with as a kid? Had he ever been someone to do this?

Speak of the devil, Green walked into the classroom, hands in pockets, coolly strolling towards his seat. He glanced at Red, seeing Gold beside him, giving both of them a calm smile before sitting down.

“You were saying?” whispered Red.

“It’s because you’re here,” Gold whispered back. “See? It’s working already. I’m going to your class every period break now.”

“...”

**~~~~**

Throughout the day, Gold really did keep coming back after every lesson. Red’s classmates were starting to notice the weird kid, and how he always stuck tightly to Red. Red could feel judgemental looks being held his way, though he was glad nobody was asking about it.

In the meantime, Red realised that Gold was actually incredibly friendly and easy to talk to. There wasn’t a moment of awkwardness as they talked about the most trivial of things: homework, teachers, classmates... Gold was lively when he talked, and his manner of slight arrogance made him appear endearing, more than anything else. Gold cheered him up, so much that he almost forgot about Silver being a problem at all.

Almost.

He was still a little curious about Gold’s issue with Green, though.

“Green,” he called out from his seat as he made his way towards the empty one, Silver’s seat, in front of his.

Green took off his headphones. “Yeah?”

“Gold is telling me that you’ve been going to his class to bother him every day. What’s going on?”

“What?” Green feigned ignorance, giving him a blank look. “Gold? That idiot? I’ve been wondering how the two of you suddenly seemed so close...”

“So did you harass him or not?”

“...no? Why would I? Do you think I have nothing better to do than bother him every day? We’ve met like two times, Red, I barely remember his name. Do I really look like a person who’d do that sort of thing?”

“No...” Red slumped his shoulders. Then what was Gold telling him about? And he seemed so earnest, too...

**~~~~**

After school, Gold went back to 2-A again, scrambling to find Red, who was still in the middle of listlessly packing his bag.

“Yo, need any help?” asked Gold.

“It’s fine...”

Actually, it was not fine. He wasn’t going home with Silver today, and the prospect of that made his heart sink even further. Luckily Gold was there to fill in the empty space, or else he would’ve really sunk into a depression.

“I’m done,” said Red after a while, lifting his bag over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

As they walked out of school together, Gold continued to talk. Apparently, he never ran out of things to say, unlike Silver, who wouldn’t even bother looking his way. Gold made him feel like he was interested in him, like he genuinely wanted to be friends. Compared to Silver, he felt like warm blankets and a hot cup of tea.

Other than the fact that he was shiftily looking around every minute or so, which was weird, this boy didn’t seem bad at all. So it seemed really strange that he would lie so readily about Green.

Then again, they did have a bit of hatred thing going on...

“Are you going that way?” said Gold, and Red realised that they were approaching a fork in the road. Gold was pointing in the direction of the road that went straight ahead.

“Nope, going that way,” Red replied, thumbing at the turn. “Well, I’ll be seeing ya.”

“W-wait!”

Gold held his arm tightly, refusing to let him go.

Red was shocked, then confused, then a little bit irritated.

“Yes? Is there anything else?” he asked, his voice thinning slightly.

Gold smiled sheepishly. “What if Green comes back again?” He gulped while still somehow retaining his smile. “What if he stalked us?”

Red sighed. “Look, Green stays in the dorm. He isn’t allowed to leave the school campus or he’d get in trouble. There’s no way he’d follow us all the way here.”

“But he’s capable of anything!” Gold protested.

“...Gold.”

Red tried his best to remain calm.

“...buddy. Just tell me the truth, okay? I don’t get why you’re making me do this.”

“Huh? ...wait, you don’t believe me, do you?” Gold seemed a little bit angry.

“S-see, I’m hearing two sides of the story here. Green’s telling me that he’s never done anything - he barely even remembers you, dude! I’ve known Green since we were kids, and he would never do something like that. So just tell me, what’s going on? Because I literally have no idea what you are trying to achie-”

“ _AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!_ ”

Red lurched back in shock as Gold flung his bag onto the ground.

“FUCK YOU, GREEN!!!” he screamed into the sky. “Damn that prissy fucker, I hope he goes to hell, that fucking bitch, thinking he’s so cool and can do whatever he wants, fuck him fuck him _fuck him!!_ Eat SHIT, asshole!”

Gold was this close to stomping on his bag before Red hurriedly stopped him.

“Okay, calm down, Gold,” said Red, firmly holding onto Gold’s shoulders. “Don’t breathe so hard, you’ll hyperventilate like that, just relax... it’s okay...”

After that show of hysterics, Red couldn’t possibly not believe him. But that still begged the question... why would Green do such terrible things to this poor soul?

Red eventually decided that maybe Gold’s wild claims had some truth to them after all, but he must have overreacted, or exaggerated it to a certain extent. Surely it couldn’t have been that bad?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Red, but it is that bad.


	8. Teacher Prince

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The School Prince displays his best talent - teaching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I was going to update sooner but I just... didn't?? Sorry for the wait!
> 
> Short chapter today... still, hope you enjoy it!!

It had been a few days since Silver last came to school. The empty seat behind Green seemed colder and more foreign to him than ever before. Somehow, not seeing Silver in his usual place made it easier for Green to dissociate Silver's face with the misery he was causing Red – speaking of which, Green would occasionally turn back towards him, only to be met with a depressed, withdrawn version of the Red he once knew.

“Hey Red,” asked a classmate, “Where has Silver been for the past week?”

“Why are you asking me?” replied Red, in an unenthusiastic voice.

“...because you're the closest to him? If you don't know where he is, who else would know?”

At that moment, Green wanted nothing more but to crush his classmate to bits.

When classes were over for the day, Red was still sulking in the corner, lost in his own world. Green took the opportunity to quietly slip out of the classroom.

He found himself back at the front door of Class 2-G, again, not even bothering to ask for entrance and directly proceeding to hollering into the classroom.

“Gold, you come out here right now!”

Upon hearing it, Gold simply groaned. This was the _seventh_ time Green had asked to meet him, and the past few times haven't exactly been pleasant.

_First you steal my dates, now you come here whenever you want to harass me?! Am I some sort of toy to you? Did I offend you in my past life or something?_

Since that day, everyone was beginning to question him about Green. “The two of you know each other?”, or “Are you guys friends?” Then, they started asking about Green's favourite colour, or his hobbies, or anything he was even mildly interested in.

Gold wanted to scream at them that no, he didn't know a damn thing, and they were never even friends to begin with!

_We've met like, twice, and now he comes and harasses me all the damn time!_

Gold was ninety-nine percent sure that it was probably illegal and a violation of his personal rights, yet everyone seemed to love Green even more for it, thinking it must be some sort of endearing way he treated his friends, going so far as to ask Gold to make him to come over more often.

This was not the kind of attention Gold was trying to get.

Not even Red believed him when he tried to ask for his help!

Despite everything, Gold managed to drag his feet out of the classroom anyway.

He faced Green, letting him drag him into the corridor again, his arms figuratively open wide, ready to handle the torrent of insults the guy was about to hurl at him.

Green took one look at him and immediately turned up his nose.

“Why are you wearing your shirt backwards?” he asked, voice filled with contempt. “You think you look cool like this?”

Oh, shit. Gold didn’t do it on purpose at all, and it was, frankly, embarrassing. He was surprised no one noticed – though Gold only really noticed it upon closer inspection. He was more surprised at the fact that Green had been so observant in the first place.

“Why do you even stay back so late, anyway, shouldn't you be on your way home or something? Studying so hard, pretending to be a hardworking little boy... Are you even reading your textbooks properly? You're probably just flipping through the pages, aren't you? Thinking you're _so_ smart because you can read them so quickly.”

Gold realised that this was actually half-true. Green was strangely making a lot of sense with his insults today... Maybe this one could be reasoned with.

“Well,” he said again, attempting to change the subject. “You could tutor me, then.”

Green stared back at him.

“Tutor you?” he asked, numbly.

“Yeah.” Gold flashed a smile, feeling proud for seizing the opportunity. “Since you always get such good grades, plus you come here so often, why not help me with my work? Since you keep calling me dumb? My math is honestly terrible, so please help.”

Green thought about it for a while. After seven harassments, Green was actually beginning to think that he was wrongfully mistreating Gold after all. Gold probably had no idea what was going on anyway, and the 'personal agenda' Green had was just becoming an excuse for him to constantly come over. It was becoming more of a routine than actual revenge.

Tutoring him in the meantime didn't seem so bad.

Regaining his cool demeanour, he replied, “Sure. When do you want me to come over? I’m assuming I’m tutoring you in your classroom.”

“Sure, uh... as much as possible, I guess?”

Truth to be told, Gold wasn't all for being tutored by this guy. He was just hoping that by doing this, he could make Green focus more on something else, and less on whatever's getting on his nerves all the time.

Green tilted his head to the side. “Every day, then?”

“I guess,” Gold replied, without thinking too much about it.

“Okay. We can start today.”

**~~~~**

Green was actually an amazing tutor. He might as well be a teacher, because he sure was better than any of Gold’s own crappy teachers.

“Finished,” said Gold, after finally solving a 6-mark math question. Proudly, he showed it to Green.

With a single glance, Green looked away again.

“Your second step is wrong,” he said in a monotone. “Do it again.”

“...?!” Gold stared at his paper in disbelief. “I swear I got it right...”

“You understand the method,” Green commented, almost seeming kind about it. “But look carefully, remember where you’re substituting your equation into.”

“...oh... Oh!” Gold’s eyes lit up, and he quickly picked up his pen, cancelled his working and began again.

“Don’t be so careless next time, airhead.”

Suddenly, Gold felt his hair being roughly tussled.

“ARGH!” yelled Gold, who hated having his hair messed up. Looking at Green, who had his hand outstretched, he immediately knew who the culprit was.

“You’re the airhead here, damn you!! What the hell do you want?”

Green suddenly broke into a smile. “Oh, nothing much. It's just something in your hair.”

“...” That was the laziest excuse anyone could have come up with.

Day after day, after day, of sitting at the last row together after school, of Green explaining questions to him, clicking his tongue at him and paraphrasing his explanation whenever Gold still couldn’t understand, jabbing the blunt end of his pencil at his forehead... Gold felt like he was actually beginning to understand the crap in his textbooks.

He felt like someone should slap a Teacher title onto his current one; some people were just born to teach, and Green was one of them. Some of his classmates were beginning to go to him for help, too.

Hell, Green was about to become the class tutor at this rate.

The Teacher Prince. Imagine that.

Gold also noticed that there were more and more girls staying back too, piling at the front of the class and looking back at them. Some of the girls weren't even from his class, but they were here anyway, obviously to look at Green.

Gold, on the other hand, was coldly neglected.

_Counts as doing them a favour, I guess._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Could this be the start of something new...?


	9. Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Green feels like he’s in a dream, because Red and Silver seem to be completely fine...?! Meanwhile, the girls of Class 2-G find something a little off with Gold and Green...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop dee doo hope you’re ready to be just as confused as our main characters are, enjoy~

“Hey,” asked Red suddenly, tapping at the back of Silver’s chair. “How do you do this question?”

Silver turned around, bending over and peering at the other guy’s worksheet. “What, you haven’t even attempted to solve it yet. I can see that the paper’s blank, you know. Just try.”

“But I’ve been staring at the question for ages, and I still have no idea! Please help...”

“Bullshit,” snorted Silver, “It’s literally the same method as the previous one. And you’re the  _top student in the entire fucking grade_. You’re not fooling anybody.”

He whacked Red across the top of his head, and Red chuckled evilly to himself before getting back on track.

Watching them, Green felt like he had accidentally travelled back in time.

He was expecting shit to break down the day Silver finally came back to school, but it was as if nothing had happened...?!

It was fucking ethereal...

His relationship with Red had become really weird recently. They’d become so close out of nowhere, and then suddenly went to utter despair??

Green remembered Red crying to him about their family complications and how heartbroken he had been. Green had comforted him so sincerely, promising to protect him... and then Red and Silver were best buddies again?! What was this?!

It felt like it was all just a dream... Green had to ask Red later about what was happening. But right now, he was busy flipping through an assessment book chock full of math questions, trying to pick out ones for Gold to do...

**~~~~**

One fine Friday afternoon, Green entered Class 2-G, seeming a little too happy about something.

“Sorry, I won’t be tutoring you today,” he said, being formal and genuinely apologetic about it. “I would stay a bit longer if I could, but I’m rushing back home. Here, I got you a few questions to do first.”

“Oh, okay,” replied Gold nonchalantly, even though he was actually pretty disappointed. It was rather strange; after a few study sessions with Green, the insane-harasser image that he had of him was beginning to fade away.

Student life was simply that fickle. Weird days come and go like the wind – suddenly friends were enemies, and enemies were friends again. Gold was beginning to accept that reality.

“What’s the occasion, though?” he asked curiously.

“Red’s finally going to come back home with me for the weekend,” he explained, a spark of joy in his eyes. “You know him, and anyway, he’s a childhood friend. My grandpa has been wanting to see him again for a long time now.”

Gold’s eyes lit up in recognition.

“Yeah, that guy,” he remembered. “Heard he’s Silver’s boyfriend now. Did they tell you anything?”

“...” Green nearly crushed his file.

_Even this twerp knew what was going on?!_

“Hm, I guess you don’t – don’t worry, I barely know anything either. Huh... he gets the top grades in the entire level, doesn’t he? You guys were _childhood_ friends? No wonder you’re so smart, too.”

Green subconsciously smiled. Gold had said it too lightly for him to actually mean it as a compliment, but it was nice all the same.

“Maybe I should’ve asked Red to tutor me instead,” sighed Gold, “maybe then I wouldn’t have to deal with your constant abuse.”

Green’s face immediately darkened. Gold was  _his_  student; there was no way Red was going to take him away from him.

“Maybe you should,” Green remarked bitterly. “He’s a very busy man, though, so you may not want to bother him.”

Actually, that was a lie. Red spent all his free time on either pointless studying or on Silver.

Gold seemed to have bought the lie.

“Well, that’s fine,” Gold grumbled. “You seem like a better teacher, anyway...”

Green seemed happy with that response. “I’ll be going now. See you next week.”

“See ya.”

After Green left the classroom, Gold stood up, letting out a huff.

“Hey, Gold.”

Crys was walking towards him, hands in the pockets of her school jacket, while the crowd of girls stood around her, approaching him slowly.

Gold felt like he was being ambushed by a gang of bloodthirsty mobsters. The way they stalked forward as if he was their prey was scarily ominous, and he was very afraid of what was about to come.

“...h-hey?” he asked, his voice shaking. “What’s going on?”

Crys was the one who stepped out of the crowd first, clutching a slip of paper in her hands and lifted it up to read.

“As a collective whole, the members of the 2-G study club want me to ask you a question...” She paused for effect. “They ask: ‘What is the true nature of your relationship with Green?’”

Gold scrunched up his nose. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“We mean,” a girl amongst the crowd piped up, “We think that your relationship with Green is suspiciously ambiguous.”

“...eh?”

“You refuse to tell us anything about Green,” said a girl at the other end of the crowd. “Why are you being so secretive about it?”

“Huh, no, it’s just that I –”

“Before Green started to come into our class, we’ve never seen the two of you even with each other before,” said another girl. “Other than tutoring, the two of you never hang out. Doesn’t that seem a little... _off_  to you?”

“Well, ye –”

“The main question is...” said the first girl, her voice reduced to a hush as the classroom went silent. “Are you and Green... together?”

Gold thought that he was missing out some necessary context here.

“...I’m sorry? I don’t quite get what you mean by that?” he asked, genuinely confused.

“Are you two dating?!” one girl yelled.

Immediately after, the rest of the girls went crazy in response, whooping and cheering and making strange poses at the back of the crowd.

“W-what the hell?! No way!” Gold was strongly opposed to that idea, and expressed it with his firmly crossed arms. “We’re just frie– you know what? We’re not even friends to begin with!”

“And you mean like... more than friends?”

Gold’s face turned to thunder. “No,  _less_  than friends. Personally, I want him to stay as far as possible from me.”

“Then why does he come here to see you so often?” asked Crys. “Why do we always see him poking your forehead, or messing up your hair, or messing around with you?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Gold grumbled. “He makes me uncomfortable. He just gives me bad vibes.”

“Then why did you agree to him tutoring you?” another girl persisted.

Gold wanted to cry. Was he not supposed to want Green to stop harassing him every day after school? Was it wrong for him to ask him to help him with his schoolwork, and actually use that scolding time for something more productive and meaningful? Was he wrong for wanting to have some peace and get some decent grades for once?!

The circumstances may not have made it so obvious, but Green was actually pretty nice to him, apart from the random physical abuse he still subjected him to.

Was it really that weird?!

He lost the energy to explain himself. “I don’t know,” he lamely replied, sitting back down.

“You know what guys, I’m going home.”

“You’re not studying?”

Gold rolled his eyes. “What’s the point if he isn’t here, anyway?”

As Gold lugged his schoolbag onto his shoulder and walked off, the girls couldn’t help but exchange multiple eye-raises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When things don’t quite make sense but you accept it anyway... That’s the typical student life.


	10. Hometown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Green and Red head back to their hometown for the weekend, where Green searches for answers, both in Red and in himself...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know... I started this fic thinking it’ll only be 10 chapters... h a ha
> 
> Also, uh, sorry for the wait? It’s a loooong chapter so I hope that makes up for it! The flipside is that I may have missed out stuff in proofreading :')
> 
> minor warning: drinking is mentioned! (though its not particularly explicit)

 

“Green, look!”

A huge smile was plastered on Red’s face, as he ran across the fields, on the outskirts of a small town.

“We’re back home!”

Green ran after the excited boy, beaming with joy himself. Pulling his luggage behind him, closing his eyes and feeling the wind as he ran past, smelling the familiar smell of wild grass... _God,_  he thought. _I’m really back home._

“Red, slow down!” he yelled.

Red simply laughed, and Green almost felt the impulse to laugh along.

It was like going back to his childhood again. Back to innocence, back to when his worst troubles were wondering if Red ever liked him back...

Okay. His worst troubles were still wondering if Red ever liked him back. But man, life was so much simpler back then, and Green couldn’t help but want to return to those times...

**~~~~**

“Professor!!”

Funnily enough, Red was more excited to see Professor Oak than the old man’s grandson was. He dashed into the lab building, with Green chasing after him, heavily panting behind.

The old man looked closely at Red for a moment before breaking into a smile. “Red, it’s you, isn’t it?”

“Hey, you remember me!”

“Of course I do. How could I ever forget that cheeky face of yours...? You haven’t changed very much.”

“Hello, Grandpa.” Green smiled at him too, happy to be around family.

“Good to see you too, Green,” said Professor Oak, with a warm smile. “So you brought Red along with you this time! Thank you. Where have you been, Red? I haven’t seen you in years!”

“I’m sorry,” Red apologised, “I always have something coming up whenever I want to visit here again... and my parents don’t really approve of me coming back. Not that they can do anything about it now that I’m here.”

“What a rebel,” sighed the Professor.

“Now then... Green,” he continued, placing both his hands on Green’s shoulder. “How are you? I believe you were supposed to come back a while ago, right? Is everything all right?”

“I cancelled it because _he_  was busy,” he said, nodding in his direction. “But I’m fine.”

“That’s good to hear. Doing well in grades, I hope?”

Green nodded again. “Come to think of it, tests are coming soon...”

“Well, we better start studying soon,” murmured Red, folding his arms in thought.

“Aish, Grandpa, don’t just ask them about their grades!”

Green immediately turned his head towards the source of the voice - a lady in her mid-twenties stepping out of a door.

“Sis!” said Green in delight, as the older woman ran towards him and gave him a big hug.

“Ah... you’re still my handsome little brother...” She looked up at Red, too. “You too! The handsome part, I mean.”

“By the way, I wasn’t only asking about their grades,” Professor Oak commented indignantly, “I asked them about their well-being too, you know.”

“You two are doing fine, I hope?” asked Daisy, ignoring her grandfather. “You’re behaving in school... right? You used to stir up so much trouble when you were younger. You’d better not be harassing any of your schoolmates this time.”

“...” Both of them kept silent, meeting each other’s gaze in mutual understanding.

Daisy sighed. “Some people never change.”

**~~~~**

After a long day of unpacking, visiting old friends and general tomfoolery, Red and Green finally decided to take a break.

Instinctively, they both knew exactly where to go: there was a quiet lake somewhere back in a small cave, not too far into the outskirts. If it wasn’t occupied, they would sit at the little cliff protruding out of one end of the lake, hanging their feet from it. As kids, they could swing their feet freely, to and fro, and feel the euphoria of maybe accidentally toppling over and hit the lake-water.

Now as near-adults, however, they only needed to point their toes a little bit to touch the lake-water, which was what Green did now, creating tiny ripples here and there and staring at them intently.

Red had his arms propping himself up behind him. Suddenly, he sighed.

“It feels like we’re ten again.”

That was what Green had been trying to say the whole duration of this trip. The nostalgia hit him like an ocean wave, and Green wished it could just wash him away, and away, and away... deep into the depths of his memories...

“Hey, you okay?”

Red scuttled over, closer to Green, resting an arm on his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” muttered Green in reply. “It’s just... it’s times like this that make me wish I can go back. Where I’m not some... ‘pop’ kid. Now its all about being Mr. Perfect, with perfect looks, perfect personality, perfect grades. Remember when people didn’t give a damn?”

“No,” Red admitted. “You know, you weren’t exactly unknown here either. Your grandpa... your grades, too... oh, and your looks. Every girl I met talked about how _cute_  you were.”

“...”

“The sad life of a handsome boy,” joked Red, playfully hitting Green.

Green sighed. “Whatever, don’t ruin my childhood memories.”

Red laughed, and wrapped an arm around Green’s neck, pulling himself closer. Red was once the same height as him, but now that Green was considerably taller, he didn’t really have to move much to rest his head on Green’s shoulder, where he sighed contentedly.

“Tired...” he groaned, followed by a loud yawn.

Green rested his head on Red’s, sighing to himself.

A few years ago, this would’ve been the perfect scenario. He would’ve been egging himself to make a move on Red now, even though in the end, he would’ve been either too much of a coward, or just too lazy to act.

In a way, it gave him a pleasant feeling in the back of his mind, though he wasn’t sure what he was really feeling anymore. Green felt like he was the fourteen-year-old, with the massive crush on his best friend again, except instead of a crush, there was this crushing emptiness that made him long for something else to fill it with.

A part of him wanted that feeling back, but after years of being lectured about suppressing romantic impulses and avoiding relationships, he had already accepted the reality of discarding that urge.

In any case, Green kept feeling like he was forgetting something – feeling like there was a burning, unanswered query at the back of his head.

And then he remembered.

“Red.”

Green felt Red shift under him. “Hm?”

“How did you and Silver... you know... end up together?”

“Eh? Oh, that...”

Green pulled away to face Red squarely in the face.

“You owe me a huge explanation. After you had that mental breakdown about Silver never wanting to see you again? And then him disappearing for a week? What the hell _happened_? Did you guys make up or something?”

Red was hesitant in giving an answer. “...yeah,” he said, after a long pause.

Ironically, his answer begged for even more questions.

“But how?” asked Green, more intently. “What did Silver do? Or what did you do? Tell me  _exactly_  what went down.”

“Well, I...”

A look of guilt came over Red’s face.

“I... Green, forgive me, okay? It was in the heat of the moment...”

Green was getting worried, but he pressed on. “Just tell me.”

“I was desperate to see him. I cried... a lot... and I was seriously ready to beat him up, really, even though I would never do that to him...”

“You didn’t actually beat him up, did you?!”

“No...but... I kind of got a little bit drunk... and then I hired a few guys...”

The story was getting worse and worse. “And then?”

“I... may have hired them to kidnap Silver.”

Green nearly toppled into the water.

“Red... _why..._ ” he sighed, putting a hand to his forehead.

_That poor boy is scarred for life..._

“And then I tied him to a bed,” muttered Red. “And then I climbed on top of him...”

Green was horrified. “Red, what the fuck?!”

“And then I... started yelling at him like crazy. I scolded him really badly...”

Green heaved a huge sigh of relief. He was still on the brink of fainting nonetheless.

“I didn’t mean it!!” Red exclaimed. “I was just going to... tell him some things, but I got all worked up and got really angry...”

“Oh my god, Red. He must’ve been _furious_.”

Red nodded sadly. “He was.”

“God... Red, what the hell happened? And how did he end up with you after all that?! I would’ve fucking murdered you.”

“Well...”

**~~~~**

_“I hate you, Silver!”_

_Red had screamed those words, and they were even louder now that his face was barely centimetres away from Silver’s._

_“Did you know,” he continued, “that you are the only, the only, guy, in my entire fucking life, that has made me cry this hard? Do you know how much pain you’ve caused me? Huh?!”_

_Red was going delirious by this point. He needed to get it out, he needed to get it all out, and Silver was finally right here to hear it all-_

_“I’m going insane because of you. I can’t stop thinking about you, I can’t focus in class, and I haven’t been doing any homework. And you know why. It’s because I’m in love with you. It’s because I’ve liked you ever since I first saw you.”_

_Red grabbed Silver’s collar._

_“Did you ever think that I only wanted to be friends?!” he shouted, before letting his collar go. “I’ve always... wanted to be with you... but you had to go ruin it, didn’t you?”_

_“I’m not going to regret a single word I say here. I’m going to tell you I wanted to fuck you from the day we met. But now, all I want to do is fucking toss you aside. I’m never going to see you again, so I don’t care about you anymore. I’ll allow you to scold me back right now. Say anything. And then I’ll leave for good.”_

_There was a momentary pause where Red waited for Silver’s response._

_“Are you done?” seethed Silver, finally. “I went out to apologise to you, but look what I fucking got. I didn’t go out to get verbally abused by you.”_

_“...what?”_

_“Get off me. I can smell alcohol on you.”_

_“...you mean it?” asked Red, his voice suddenly quivering. “You wanted to apologise?”_

_“Wanted to,” spat Silver, “but now I don’t. I don’t deserve to feel sorry for someone like you.”_

_Red sat there, silently staring at the wall front of him._

_“You were going to apologise?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“...you’re not lying to me, right?”_

_Silver’s eyes relented. “No, I’m not. I wanted to completely break off with you, because I didn’t want to embarrass my dad. I thought he wouldn’t want anything to do with your family. But he... forgave her. My gold-digger mom, and your dad. He forced me to apologise, and I admit, I did want to.” His face darkened again. “Like I said, not anymore. You’re an actual ass.”_

_Those words hurt Red more than he thought it would._

_“You sure you’re not lying? I’ll call your dad.”_

_“Go ahead.”_

_Red took out his phone, then paused to look back at Silver. He dialled in the number, and looked at Silver again, almost threateningly this time. And then he pressed the call button._

_Ring..._

_Giovanni picked up. “Hello? Red, is that you?”_

_“Yeah,” went Red. “He said you told him to apologise to me...”_

_“Good, because I did. That boy... he gets so dramatic sometimes. Don’t take his words to heart, I’m very sorry on his behalf. Is he here with you?”_

_Red glanced nervously at Silver. “Yeah, he’s with me.”_

_“Good. Come back soon, and make sure you drag Silver along. And help him catch up with lessons, though he’s been studying the textbook and doing the exercises all by himself... Still, at least update him on anything he might have missed. You can come back to rest too, you sound very tired.”_

_“...I will, sir,” he said. “See you later.”_

_“See you.”_

_Silver had the I-told-you-so expression on his face._

_“I’m... I’m sorry...” mumbled Red._

_A sigh. “Just untie me right now.”_

_And so Red did, getting off Silver, untying the rope with his face plastered with guilt._

_“Silver,” he started, “you won’t-”_

_He felt the rope whip his arm ferociously, causing the whole area to sting._

_“Never do that again,” hissed Silver, getting up and throwing the rope onto the ground. “Now, let’s go home.”_

_“Wait,” said Red, still wincing from the pain. “Silver-”_

_“I said, let’s go home.”_

_“No,” Red insisted. “Hear me out, I just... I’m really sorry.”_

_“I know.”_

_“Silver, will you at least answer one question?”_

_Silver sighed again. “Ask, then.”_

_“Do you... like me?”_

_There was only silence._

_“Okay... maybe not anymore, but... Did you... maybe... ever like me?”_

_“Let’s not waste our time,” said Silver, “and let’s-”_

_“Answer me, please?”_

_Red’s voice was cracking. He couldn’t see himself, but he knew he looked desperate, and he stared at Silver, stared into those pretty eyes of his, begging for an honest answer._

_“No, I don’t.”_

_Red had expected to get angry, but instead, a strange calm had taken over him. “...really?” he asked one more time, sounding more broken than he would’ve liked._

_Silver’s cold mask began to crack. It crumbled apart, and what was left was a small, redheaded boy, looking like he was desperately trying not to cry._

_“Red... you idiot...”_

_It happened in slow motion. Silver had fallen, right into Red’s arms, leaning forward until Red could feel something pressed onto his lips..._

_It was Silver. Red was numb and could barely feel anything, but he knew it was Silver. Who else could it be? He felt dumb for wondering._

_Once the initial shock boiled over, Red realised that his eyes were still open, and saw that Silver’s weren’t completely closed either, just waiting..._

_For...?_

_Red immediately knew the answer to that._

_He closed his eyes, and then leaned back in._

_The feeling was insane. Silver’s arms held him tightly around his waist, while Red’s hands flailed aimlessly behind Silver until they finally found their place somewhere on his back, and they had kissed for way too long, so long that Red felt like he was about to hyperventilate from the number of times they pulled apart to breathe._

_He didn’t want it to end, ever, but Silver had eventually pulled away._

_“You’re an idiot. It’s not like I couldn’t stop thinking about you either... I never wanted you to leave... don’t ever leave me again...”_

_Red had pulled Silver close to his chest, holding him tighter, without saying a single word._

_“Does that answer your question?” came a tired whispered from below his chin._

_Red silently nodded._

_“Can... can we please just go home now?”_

**~~~~**

“He kissed me, Green, he... He really loved me...”

Red’s eyes were glazed over. Green had never seen him this captivated by anything else in his life, other than by the trophy he had received, when he had emerged as champion in some nation-wide mathematics competition. And even that level of euphoria seemed inferior, compared to the look Red had in his eyes now.

If Silver could forgive him that easily, even after being treated like that... Green concluded that they were really in love after all. And it made him feel absolutely bitter.

There was no real rhyme or reason to it. He was just... bitter, even though his mind told him he should be happy for his friend. Instead, he felt jealous, defensive, and utterly awful about it.

“That’s good...” said Green, forcing it out. But it didn’t feel good at all. In fact, he felt worse for outright lying to Red like that.

Sensing the strange air in his words, Red quickly piped up with more conversation, hoping he’d feel better.

“A-actually, this makes me want to ask you something too... What’s happening between you and Gold?”

Green blinked. “Me and Gold?”

“Yeah. You told me that you haven’t been doing anything him, but Gold was clearly super upset. He was completely paranoid of everything, man, he wouldn’t even want to go home alone! And when I told him what you told me, he had a mental freakin’ breakdown right there, in the middle of the road. I know you did something to him.”

Green sighed, feeling stupid that he ever thought he could get away with it.

“Yeah, I did, I admit it. I barged into his class every day and scolded him over some shit reason every time.”

“...every day?” Red was sceptical. “You’re exaggerating, right?”

“I mean it. Every. Day. I did it just to make him suffer. I knew he might come to you or Silver for help, so I knew I had to play dumb if any of you asked.”

Spelling it out for Red was strangely therapeutic for himself, too, but it also reminded him of how stupid that plan was.

“...why?” Red just seemed confused. “I don’t get it... You wouldn’t do something like that.”

Green paused. “Just know that it was because I was extremely angry.”

“Then that’s... really mean.”

For some reason, those words stung him.

“I mean, Gold was really, really scared because of you. That’s not cool... no one deserves that. If it’s something about Gold bothering you about girls that day, then that’s really uncalled for. You should really apologise to him when we get back.”

“...”

Green wouldn’t have admitted it, but those words had pierced through his heart like a steel blade. And god, was he pissed.

Red said it as if he really knew what was going on. As if he was in any position to judge him. It was not about girls, it was not about whatever stupid reason it looked like...

_It’s because of you, stupid._

“...okay.”

Green had so much more to say to him, but he was _not_  looking to get into an argument with him. Not after everything.

“I’M SORRY!!” shouted Red, scaring Green out of his wits. “I didn’t mean to say it like that! I’m really sorry if I hurt your feelings, I don’t mean it, okay. I just... I’m sorry...”

Red crushed Green in a bone-breaking hug.

“...” Green was rendered completely speechless, partially because he could barely even speak like this.

_If you wanted to scold me, at least do it properly..._

“What’s with you?” said Green, finally, gently pushing his friend away. “I didn’t ask for an apology.”

“But... I didn’t want to make you angry... what if something like Silver happens again? I can’t take another blow like that...”

“Idiot...” muttered Green. “Anyway, I’m sorry. I know what I did was stupid. And anyway, I’ve been helping him... Now I tutor him every day.”

“Wait... tutor?”

“Yeah. The guy’s terrible at math, so I’m just helping him with it. I’m... not completely heartless, you know...”

Green appeared slightly hurt, though Red was unsurprisingly oblivious of it.

“I promise I’ll be nicer to him,” said Green firmly. “I won’t –”

“Wait, wait! It can’t be, can it?”

“Can’t be what?” Green seemed mildly irritated.

“That you _like_  him?”

Green blinked once, and then rolled his eyes. “Why the hell would you think that?”

“It makes sense!” went Red, looking like he just had an eureka moment. “You started liking him. You feel frustrated that you like him, and vent your anger by being mean to him...! The typical _bully-your-crush_  concept!! It all makes sense now!”

“What? Only you’d do something like that,” said Green, scowling. “I wouldn’t bully people I like.”

“Really? That’s how you were like with me, you know.”

“...?!”

“You used to be super condescending towards me, remember? You kept calling me an idiot, but you kept sticking to me for some reason. We’d disagree on _everything_. And then one day, you suddenly became my best friend.”

“I... did that?”

“Yeah! I mean, granted I probably was an idiot back then... but it was still pretty hurtful. You have this really weird mean streak, Green. No wonder you don’t have many friends.”

“You’re one to talk,” retorted Green, while thinking about what Red had said.

He faintly remembered approaching Red back then, because his poor anti-social self had no idea how to approach someone he wanted to be friends with. He didn’t deny that he may have had a tiny crush, too.

_No way... I can’t possibly have feelings for Gold..._

It wasn’t like there were any actual _feelings_... right?

“I support your relationship!” said Red. “I’ll make sure to tell him good things about you! Like how you’re loyal! And smart! And the school heartthrob!”

“Say any more and I’ll push you into the water.”

“But... ah, just consider it.” Red grinned and gave him a thumbs up. “Gold’s a good guy. If you ask me, he’s actually a really friendly dude, and yeah, he chases popularity but can you blame him for that? Who doesn’t want to be popular? He’s just direct and outspoken, and I think he’s likeable like that. Plus...”

Green sighed. Hearing Red talk about him like that really made him feel like a complete asshole for possibly hurting him.

“...and anyway, people get this player vibe off him, but that’s not how he’s like, okay? According to Silver, a source which I one-hundred percent trust, he’s a loyal man of _monogamy_. So you don’t even have to worry about him cheating on y–”

Green gave him a mighty shove on the back. Completely caught off guard, Red plunged headfirst into the water.

The majestic splash Green heard while he did was satisfying as all hell.

Red quickly resurfaced, spluttering water everywhere.

“Green!” he yelled, sounding pissed but seeming more amused than anything. “How could you?!”

Green chuckled to himself, though his joy was short-lived. He quickly found himself struggling against a hand tugging at his feet.

Green subconsciously started to smile at him, trying to lift his feet up while begging him to let go.

“No, no, stop it, no-!”

Then Red had grabbed onto both of his legs, and that was when he knew he was screwed.

_Splash._

The first thing Green did when his head hit the atmosphere was to whack Red in the face, as hard as he could.

“Argh!” he shouted, while continuing to hit Red. “My clothes...”

Red simply turned away and grinned. “C’mon, let’s race to the other side. Whoever loses has to treat the other to food.”

Immediately, he dived for the headstart, getting there way ahead of Green even though the guy was swimming with all his might.

“Cheater!” screamed Green, as he eventually gave up and waded his way over. “It’s not fucking fair! You–” – he gasped for air – “–started early, and now my clothes are weighing me down.”

“Who told you to wear all that baggy clothing?”

“ _Nobody told me we were getting wet!!_ ”

Red only laughed heartily to himself as he swam on.

Green was a little pissed off, but he couldn’t help but smile too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this whole chapter is dramatic as all hell and I love it
> 
> Poor Silver... can’t even escape getting kidnapped in this AU...
> 
> Count the number of times Red has been called stupid or an idiot in this chapter. I bet it is Way Too Many


	11. Post-Study Session

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s not just Green who gets overly invested into idiots whom he tutors, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I’ve actually already finished writing the next chapter and just never found the time to post this one, so... expect another chapter in a few hours!! wooo
> 
> Anyway,, it’s about time the imperial cuteness starts rolling in!!!

Green placed a handful’s worth of math worksheets onto Gold’s table, tapping it lightly.

“We’ll focus on your weakest subject today - math. All these questions are to be done by today.”

Gold’s eyes widened at the size of the pile.

“What?! Green,” groaned Gold, “I’m so tired today. Do I really have to do all these?”

Green hit Gold’s head with a pencil.

“You have a test soon, and you absolutely need to pass it. And mind you, my passing mark is an A grade.”

Gold felt like he was about to faint.

“I’ve never gotten an A for a math test before!” he cried. “I’m hopeless at math!”

“Have some confidence in yourself. You’ve been doing much better in your daily work now.”

“B-but,” stuttered Gold, fumbling for an answer. “I’m not going to suddenly improve overnight! It’s impossible.”

“Which is why you have to practice,” replied Green, perfectly keeping his cool. “Students who improve in math do so from daily practice. This is why I have specially chosen those questions for you. Do all of them. You only get a break after each topic.”

Gold groaned, before beginning the questions, grumbling to himself.

_Who knew that you’d sound like a teacher, too...!_

He began to tire out after only half of the first topic.

He was so out of it that he didn’t notice Green staring at him the whole time. Gold was just... too fun to watch... but Green could clearly see him struggle through it, and he did promise to be nicer to him...

“What’s your favourite ice-cream?” asked Green suddenly.

Immediately, Gold’s eyes lit up.

“You know the ice-cream shop near school? They have this thing called the Jumbo Unovan Banana Split, and it’s the best ice-cream I have ever tasted. It’s like, a banana split, except there’s two bananas, and the banana is covered in ice-cream, then dipped in fudge, and you get like nine fucking scoops covered in more melted fudge... You _need_  to try it.”

Green scrunched his face. “Isn’t that...”

That was the gigantic bowl of diabetes he’d seen groups of people occasionally order. It looked like some celebratory thing, so he had once contemplated buying one for Red on his birthday. But when he looked at the menu and realised it cost 300 yuan (about 50USD)... he decided to let Red buy one for himself.

“If you can get an A grade on your test,” said Green, finally. “As long as it’s above 85%... I’ll treat you to one of those.”

“What the hell!!” Gold was incredulous. “Seriously?!”

“Yeah.”

Out of nowhere, Gold was all pumped up and energetic again, tackling his questions with a newfound vigour.

Green let out a small huff as he paced away from his table, a small, satisfied smile on his face.

“Green,” said one of the girls from the Fan Club. “Are you really getting a Unovan Split for him?”

“If he gets the A grade,” he replied simply.

“But it’s so expensive,” she said further, “How are you going to pay for that?”

Green thought for a while. “If I save up some pocket money, and buy one less drink every day... It’ll only take me a month or two to make up for it.”

“Hm... you’d do something like that for Gold?” said Crys. “And he is your...?”

“My student,” said Green, without a single ounce of hesitation.

“Just for a student?” the other girl pressed on.

“Of course. I agreed to tutor him, so I have to do that to the best of my abilities. I have to take responsibility as his teacher. If I don’t, how can I call myself one?”

“So cool,” echoed the majority of the girls.

Crystal was a little bit sceptical, though...

**~~~~**

After hours of Green’s hardcore study session, Gold’s face was now on the table, half asleep.

Green had always liked to teach people things, but for some reason, it was always especially rewarding to help Gold. He was starting to look forward to after lessons ended every day, just so that he could see Gold’s face again.

So that he could see Gold’s thinking face, so he could laugh whenever he saw his I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing-but-I-will-pretend-I-do expression...

So that he could see Gold’s victory grin, whenever he finally understood something, or solved a difficult question all by himself...

So that he could see him scrunch up in discomfort whenever he poked him, or messed up his hair...

These were all too precious to him. Green almost didn’t want to teach Gold anymore, fearing for the day Gold would become so proficient at his studies that he wouldn’t need his help anymore. That he wouldn’t have the chance to experience any of this.

Yes, he was still confused as ever over his emotions and feelings. But no matter how hard he tried to make out his possible feelings for Red and any possible feelings for Gold, it only served to confuse himself further.

And no matter how hard he told himself not to get them mixed up, it only seemed to get worse and worse...

Bullying Gold was just so _fun_. And so addicting... He was beginning to understand why Red had liked to bother Silver so much.

Green was the first to get up. He looked out of the window, seeing the sky already much darker than it was a few minutes ago. He looked around too, seeing that the whole class was empty, except for the two of them.

He tapped Gold lightly on the shoulder, causing him to stir.

“What?” he asked, looking up with a blurry expression on his face.

“Let’s go out.”

Gold blinked once. “Out? Now?”

“Yeah,” said Green with a crooked smile. “I feel like getting some ice cream.”

“And you’re asking me to go out with you?” Gold was sceptical.

“Yeah, because you know, why not.”

Gold thought it was more like, “Yeah, and this is blatantly an excuse to spend more time with you.”

Even Green could tell that Gold was starting to become wary of Green, and his many attempts at being friendly with him for the past week or so.

But hey, Green was enjoying himself.

“I’ll treat you. Of course I’m not getting you the Unovan Split today, but you still deserve a reward for studying hard.”

That got to him. How could he, food-lover Gold, ever deny free food??

He sighed. “You’re not even allowed to go out of the school campus, though? You stay in the dorms!”

“Huh. Well, they won’t miss me if I’m gone for an hour or so.”

“...”

**~~~~**

Instead of going to the fancy ice-cream parlour that offered the legendary ice-cream dish, Green settled for a roadside stall that sold ice-cream cones.

Gold was sort of hoping for the former, so needless to say he was pretty disappointed with what they were getting. Since they weren’t getting anything particularly expensive, Gold even offered to pay for the cone himself.

“Sit down at that bench there before anyone else takes it,” ordered Green, as if he hadn’t heard a word. “I’ll get one for you too.”

“Eh...”

Gold reluctantly did as he was told, scrolling through his phone while waiting, checking his social medias...

Out of habit, he opened Instagram, took a selfie of himself frowning and captioned it with: _what am i doing here..._

Gold barely even noticed Green walk over and tap the bottom of his phone with a cone.

“Hey!” went Gold, pulling his phone away. “Don’t do that...”

“Here.”

Green handed the ice-cream cone to him, and sat himself down.

There was a very apparent silence that followed, and it was making Gold fidget in his sear - needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable. He glanced at Green, and quickly realised he was staring right back at him.

_Had he been staring at me this whole time...?_

He attempted to make conversation.

“Hey, this ice-cream... is actually pretty nice,” he said, grinning. “I never tried it before, so I didn’t know, but... hey.”

Green nodded, while continuing to stare at him. Then he looked away.

Gold looked away too, smiling thinly at the road and feeling sorry for himself.

_At least say something...!_

Feeling bored, Gold aimlessly took out his phone again. And then an idea hit him.

He went onto Instagram again, making sure to set his flash on. And then he took the picture sideways, making sure to include Green in it.

Flash. Just as planned, Green immediately noticed it and looked towards the camera, ice-cream cone still at mouth.

Gold pretended to be shocked and looked at Green sheepishly. “Oops.”

Green chuckled. “If you wanted a selfie with me, just say so.”

Gold grinned at him again. “I was trying to get a candid shot. Get a load of this.”

In the shot, Gold had held up his cone, being all photogenic, while Green had his cone covering his lips, and his eyes looking towards the camera - a split-second of sudden realisation, captured in an easy-to-view rectangle to be immortalised in history, or at least in the deep chambers of the Instagram database.

“You look freakin’ adorable,” laughed Gold.

“...I do?”

“Yeap. And so do I~”

Green seemed amused.

Gold began typing away at his phone, pausing occasionally to think.

_getting ice cream with the Prince!! It’s a reward for surviving his study session, psst come sign up for free. Call 166-6666-6666 and get your free ice cream today!_

Green peered over at his screen, saw his caption and looked away, sighing.

“Lame,” he said. “I only agreed to tutor you, Gold. I’m not going to hold sessions for anyone else.”

“How stingy,” said Gold, sticking out his tongue. “You should always help people in need.”

“I don’t have time.”

“So you made time for me?”

“...yes.”

“Why though? Yeah, this is what I’ve been trying to fucking ask you this whole time - why? What made you want to harass me every day? Did something bad happen at home?”

“Well...” Green hesitated. “It’s because you came to class to harass me first. You’re seriously stupid to think that I’d give advice after you insulted me. Besides, you never asked me about it again. Doesn’t _that_  sound suspicious...”

“Well... I decided I would get nothing out of you, because I don’t want to become a jerk to be popular. I won’t stoop to your level.”

“Wow, that hurt,” said Green, sounding not the least bit hurt at all. “Sorry I couldn’t help you.”

“Gah.”

Gold fiercely bit off a mouthful of ice-cream.

“I just wanted to feel popular for once, you know? What’s wrong with that? Doesn’t everyone want to be popular?”

Green felt like he had heard this somewhere else before.

“I just... I used to be pretty popular in middle school. Yeah, sounds stupid now that I said it, huh? Except it turned out I wasn’t popular. I was _notorious_. And wow, turns out a lot of people disliked me, and that didn’t feel good, did it? So I went out of my way to stay out of the way this time, and now... argh. Whatever. Basically I had another round of stupid and wanted to be popular again. End of story.”

Green continued to stare at him, as if he was staring into thin air. His gaze actually felt so intent that it made him sad. Okay, he may have just told him about his life story. But so what? He didn’t care, why should Green?

“Being popular sucks,” said Green finally. “But being notorious sucks even more.”

Gold looked at him sadly, and Green actually returned the sentiment.

“...anyway, what’s your username?” asked Gold, wanting to clear the weird atmosphere. “I’ll tag you.”

“Oh... it’s greenoak5.”

“...why the ‘5’?”

“Because some idiot took greenoak, and then everyone else took all the previous numbers. I’m serious, I tried greenoak1, 2, 3 and 4 and they were all. Fucking. Taken.”

Gold laughed. “You’re kidding me.”

Green smiled, too. “You can go check it yourself.”

Gold searched ‘greenoak’, and saw exactly what Green told him: a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Gold followed the last one and checked the others.

“I can’t believe this... This one’s some roleplay account of some manga character. And...?!?! This one’s a parody of you? Look at this post, it’s just some photo of pair of headphones and, pff. The caption:  _I wear this every day to filter out the bullshit surrounding me_.”

Green burst out laughing, which shocked Gold. Because instead of the condescending smirk or snarky chuckle, this was a perfectly normal, hearty laugh.

_Okay... so maybe he’s not actually a robot after all..._

**~~~~**

There was something about eating something cold like ice-cream on a cold day like today that was very satisfying. Unfortunately, it also made one feel freezing cold.

It didn’t help that a huge gusty wind was blowing right at the two of them, making Gold feel like ice shards were roughly grazing his arm. Speaking of which, it also didn’t help that three-quarters of his arms were bare from the severe lack of jacket.

“Shit, I forgot my jacket in class,” cursed Gold, shivering as he said so. “See, it’s your fault for dragging me all the way here so suddenly.”

Gold was half-expecting to see Green feeling guilty about it, but he got the exact opposite reaction. Something bright had sparked in Green’s eyes, like a turret that had found a target. Gold almost saw it coming.

“You can have mine,” he said, taking off his jacket without even waiting for a reply.

“Woah woah woah, hold on, I don’t want your jacket,” said Gold quickly, “D-don’t get cold because of me.”

“Wow, caring about me all of a sudden?” Green had a small smirk on his lips. “Don’t get cold because of _me_. I’m the one who brought you here, right?”

Green forcefully wrapped his jacket around him, against his consent. Gold cried out, yelling at him to take it off, but he eventually relented.

Green’s jacket was a little bit big for him. Actually, it felt completely fine to him, because in truth, it was the same general size - Green had simply gotten a jacket with a slightly longer torso, for his personal comfort.

The jacket was still filled with Green's body heat when Gold put it on. It was almost as if the jacket's warmth was just Green, indirectly giving him a warm hug...

Gold shivered from the thought. He didn’t even want to look at Green anymore, though he knew that there was that self-satisfied smile on his jerk face again.

He eventually decided to forget about him, and continued to eat his ice-cream, while scrolling through his feed again.

He realised that his last post was getting a lot of likes. Checking it again, he realised it was over a hundred likes, which shocked him. Several of the comments consisted of stuff like _‘aaa green is so cute!!’_ , _‘haha gold ur cute too’_ , _‘omg... that number... is Green the devil wahaha’,_

And a _‘gold you can just tell us that you’re on a date’,_

Followed by a _‘dont worry we are very open minded, tell us the tRUTH’,_

And lastly, a _‘they are such a cute couple... i seriously ship these two like can you guys just kiss’_

“...” Gold wasn’t quite sure what to feel.

Suddenly, Green leaned to the side, attempting to look at whatever Gold was looking at, but he quickly pulled the phone away, locking it and shoving it into his pocket.

Green smiled in his usually cold way. “I know you’re looking at the comments on that photo you posted. I can just check it later, you know.”

_Well, shit..._

If Gold deleted all those comments about them dating, that would seem really suspicious to his schoolmates...

While he was in mid-thought, Green suddenly leaned into Gold’s cone and took a bite out of it.

Gold looked at Green weirdly. “The hell? What was that for?”

Green turned his head away, smiling softly, giving an endlessly cool image.

“I just felt like it.”

A cold wind suddenly blew at Gold’s face, though the actual wind was blowing the other way.

**~~~~**

They went back to Class 2-G to take their belongings.

“Thank god my jacket’s still here,” sighed Gold. He was about to take off Green’s jacket so that he could wear his own, but Green had already beat him to it, snatching the jacket off Gold's seat and sliding his arms in.

“Hey!” Gold exclaimed. “What the hell, that’s my jacket, dumbass!”

Green smiled, almost innocently at him. “We’re pretty much the same size anyway, doesn’t make a difference, right? Goodbye.”

“Wait-”

But Green was already grabbing his bag and rushing out of the classroom, leaving Gold in a pile of his dust.

He sighed.

**~~~~**

Green had only truly come to his senses once his back hit the mattress of his dormitory bed.

He clutched his jacket - Gold’s jacket - and caught himself smiling to himself. And then he suddenly realised, that this strange feeling in his chest -

It couldn’t be.

Oh _no_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Red, how the hell did you figure out I liked him before I did?_


	12. More Free Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As always, Gold can’t deny free food... But he kind of really wants his jacket back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it’s better than it sounds, I swear!  
> Also whoops, I know I was supposed to update again yesterday but whoop dee doo here it is

Gold came to class pretty early the next day - only about four or five classmates were there. Automatically he walked over towards his seat, and then paused suddenly. There was a large plastic bag, looking like it was about to burst from whatever was in it, sitting daintily on top of his table.

“...?”

Gold couldn’t quite recall any special occasion that would warrant a gift today. Or maybe... it was some kind of prank? Could it be a bagful of used plastic knives? Or could it be...

No... It couldn’t be a bagful of worksheets Green wanted him to complete by today, could it?!

Gold walked over to his table with a puzzled expression on his face. Then he sat down, and carefully opened the bag.

It was just... food. Lots, and lots of food.

There was oriental food like onigiri and meat buns, and western food like egg tarts and sandwiches. There was so much food that Gold wouldn’t be able to finish them all, even if he happened to be really hungry that day.

Gold was thankful for the food, sure, but he was also really confused. Why would anyone want to give him food for no reason?

At the bottom of the bag, there was a tiny note, and on it were words that Gold had to squint to read.

_For you._

That did not answer any of his questions.

He tapped the shoulder of a classmate beside him, who had her head on the table, buried in folded arms.

“Hey,” he asked her, after she shifted to look at him. “Do you know who put this here?”

“Huh?” answered the classmate with bleary eyes, before registering his question. “Oh, uh, I saw Crys put it there.”

_Crys?_

Why would  _she_  give Gold free food for no reason?

Gold scanned the classroom, and found Crys at the back of the class, talking with a friend. Naturally, he went over there to ask her about it.

“Did you give me this?” he asked, lifting up the bag of food.

“Oh, no it’s not from me,” said Crys, raising her hands. “Green told me to give this to you. He happened to meet me while I was going up to class.”

Green... Of course it was him.

Gold stared at the contents of the bag again. “Suddenly, I don’t feel like eating it...”

“Why?” asked a very surprised Crys. “Shouldn’t you be happy he’s giving you free food? Look at all this,” she said as she snatched the bag away, digging through it. “You’ve got a really fancy spread for breakfast today.”

The other classmate poked their head around to look at what was inside. “Woah... Gold, what the hell, where do you get a tutor who treats you this well? Is it that you don’t eat breakfast often?”

“Yeah... pretty much,” he replied. “How do you get in the mood to eat when you have to wake up this early every day?”

“So you’re saying Green knew about that?”

“...I think I did mention it once.”

Come to think of it, Gold had mentioned in passing about his lack of breakfast every day while Green was drilling chemistry into his head. He remembered Green’s strange expression in response, staring at him with those scary dark-green eyes threatening to burn a hole in Gold...

He didn’t really think much of it at the time, but it was apparent that Green had remembered.

That was... kind of a weird thing to remember...

“If you’re not eating it,” said Crys, interrupting his thoughts. “Then I will. Can I have the egg tarts?”

“Yeah, sure –”

“No!”

The classmate hurriedly snatched the bag away from Crys, protecting it in their arms.

“Dude, you can’t just give all this good shit away. _Green-motherfreakin’-Oak_  gave this to you, free of charge. Imagine the number of girls who would kill to be in your place!”

“Yeah, whatever,” went Gold. “He probably just bought it while he was buying his own breakfast or something, no big deal.”

“Uh, I don’t think so, Gold,” said Crys. “Where do you find a stall that sells both onigiri and egg tarts? And look at this – the food comes in different kinds of bags, so yes, he had to have queued up in several stalls just to get this for you.”

The other classmate piped in, too. “Not to mention he’s still not allowed to leave the school campus, but he did it for you!” they said. “I wouldn’t even do that for myself.”

Gold rubbed his temple. “...maybe he got someone else to buy it for him.”

The classmate raised their eyebrows. “I mean, maybe. I’m not gonna make any conclusions for you, but all the evidence is right there.”

Gold sighed. He felt a frown, as well as a headache incoming, but he chose to smile it off.

_I guess he’s trying to compensate me for that jacket he took... and hasn’t returned to me..._

Even though Green could’ve very well returned it along with the food...

“Take the egg tarts, or anything, really,” said Gold, finally.

They looked at him hesitantly. “You sure, Gold?”

“Yeah, you guys help yourselves. I can’t finish it all, that jerk bought way too much. Does he think I inhale food like it’s air or something?”

_Actually,_  he thought to himself,  _I kind of do..._

Almost instantly, they dived right into the egg tarts, stuffing themselves with egg custard and crust as if they hadn’t eaten in days.

They looked at him with shining eyes, mouthing muffled thank yous, while Gold waved it off and began eating his onigiri.

**~~~~**

That was not the first food-related oddity that had happened that day.

Gold happened to meet Green in the hallway while leaving for lunch break. At least that’s what he would’ve liked to say, because Green was kind of there loitering around on his phone, and only “happened” to look up at that exact moment Gold had arrived.

“How was breakfast?” he asked. “I didn’t really know what you liked, so I got you one of everything.”

Gold was shocked by that logic.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at him.

“Didn’t I already explain it before? I felt bad for harassing you before, so I’m trying to make up for it.”

Gold felt like Green hadn’t really stopped harassing him at all...

“Uh, well, thank you,” mumbled Gold. “I enjoyed it. Crys enjoyed it too.”

For some reason, Green had frowned at that. “Why did you give some to her? Didn’t I buy it for you?”

“Well... She wanted the egg tarts, and there was no way I could finish all of that. So... yeah.”

Green accepted his answer with a shrug, but he still didn’t look too happy about it.

Gold wondered if he had done something wrong.

“Anyway,” said Green, “I was wondering if we could eat lunch together. Since our lunch break is at the same time...”

“And why would I do that-”

“I’m buying lunch for you.”

Gold could only stare blankly at the adamant guy.

Had Gold signed up for some meal sponsorship contract with him or something? Why was he buying all of his food for him now? Gold almost declined his offer.

But Gold _still_  couldn’t deny free food...

**~~~~**

They sat down together at the cafeteria.

“So, what would you like to eat?” asked Green offhandedly.

“Hm... do they have garlic bread today? I want that. Also apple soda.”

“...who the hell likes apple soda?” asked Green, turning his nose up at the thought of it.

“I do,” said Gold, not-so-nicely. “Are you buying it or not?”

“Yes, princess,” went Green, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Before Gold had anything to say about it, he had already walked away.

_Sigh..._

Green came back with a tray of food - a stick of garlic bread and a bottle of apple soda, as ordered, as well as a bowl of Caesar salad and apple juice at the side.

Gold stared at the salad for a while. “Wow. I don’t know what I expected from you, but I can’t believe you actually eat salad for lunch.”

“Says the person who drinks apple soda,” replied Green, with a knife-like thinness to his voice. “Besides, it’s healthy and I need to take care of my health.”

“Huh, well, I mean it’s a very green meal,” coughed Gold. “With all that lettuce...”

Green let out a short laugh before putting his foodstuff aside. He gave Gold his apple soda, and then picked up the garlic bread, still in the plastic. Gold was expecting him to pass it over like before, but instead he took it away, taking out the bun himself like he was going to eat it.

“Hey! Isn’t that mine?” he asked, annoyed. Then, he became horrified. “Don’t tell me you’re giving me the salad?!”

Silently, Green peeled off a small piece of the garlic bread and held it in front of Gold.

“...?”

Slightly disturbed by the incredibly small portion he was giving him, Gold gave him a dirty look before reaching out a hand to take the piece from him, only for Green to yank his hand away at the last minute.

Green seemed irritated. “Use your mouth,” he ordered, before placing the piece in front of him again.

“?!?!”

Gold was shocked. Was Green... trying to feed him?!

He gave Green another weird look before reluctantly opening his mouth, letting Green place the piece of bread in it.

Gold felt absolutely wrong while he chewed the springy and otherwise delicious piece of bread.

_What kind of torture is this..._

Green continued to feed him, miraculously maintaining his poker face as if it was no big deal. If anything, it terrified Gold to see how serious he was about it.

Well, it’s not every day that you get a hot guy willingly feeding you lunch...

And then he remembered that the hot guy was Green, and that immediately dampened the mood.

Green fed him another piece, and Gold started to speak again.

“You’re a jerk.”

He continued to chew.

“You look so cool but you’re just some stuck-up-”

_Swallow._

“-some self-entitled prick-”

Green forced another piece into his mouth.

“-who thinks his looks can buy him everything-”

_Chew._

“-and a fucking sadist-”

_Chew._

“-who thinks he can-”

_Swallow._

“-torture anyone he likes, because he feels like it-”

The cycle repeated, with Green holding a poker face the entire time.

“-and has no regard-”

“-for personal space-”

“-or anyone else’s feelings-”

“-thinks he can buy favour with free food-”

“-thinks I’ll do anything he asks for free food-”

“-and fucking takes advantage of people like me-”

“-for his own selfish fucking enjoyment-”

Gold was immediately interrupted by Green rudely shoving a crouton in his mouth. It wasn’t that he didn’t like them, but that the sudden crunchiness compared to the relatively soft garlic bread had startled him.

Gold swallowed the crouton with much difficulty. “What the hell?!”

He thought he had broken a tooth or something...

Green chuckled. “Look at your mouth. You’ve got crumbs everywhere.”

Gold had a sudden flashback to a horrific memory...

Without warning, Green reached a hand out to gently wipe the corners of his mouth.

Gold froze. What the hell was he doing? Gold did not expect that at all, and for a moment his mind blanked out, and he only saw Green’s tender smile, and his soft gaze...

People were starting to stare at them.

Gold snapped out of it, and pushed him away.

“Dude, why are you doing this? Are you mentally ill?”

Green chuckled. “Yes, I’m very ill.”

“If you’re sick, there’s medicine. Don’t keep bothering me.”

Green gave a small smile.

“What if _you_ are my medicine?”

“...”

Gold was dumbfounded by his answer.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

But Green kept quiet, with only a dubious expression on his face.

Gold didn’t know what quite to make out of it.

**~~~~**

“Oh, by the way,” said Gold, as they walked back to class. “Can I have my jacket ba-”

But before he even finished his sentence, Green had turned the corner into his own classroom.

Gold sighed, again.

**~~~~**

Green had laid in bed that night, tossing and turning, feeling hot even though it was a freezing, cold night.

Today was a mistake... everything he did was an embarrassing mistake...

_Fuck!! Why can’t I stop thinking about that idiot?!_

Why did he do all that? Why did he let it go that far? It started as an innocent act of kindness in the morning, when he had thought of the food-lover’s shocking breakfast-skipping habit... and then Green couldn’t stop thinking about how he must have reacted to the food... and then when Green did meet him to ask, he didn’t want to leave him, so he spent the rest of his weekly allowance on buying his lunch for him... and because Gold sounded so hot when he was insulting him, he just kept feeding and feeding him... and then he said all those embarrassing things -

He had to stop. Green had dealt with his crush on Red before, but now he was dealing with a whole new level of obsession - what was this feeling? Like he needed him? Like he couldn’t go a day without him constantly swirling in his brain?

That’s it. He was going to cut off this nonsense at the roots - there was no way it could go on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it’s called an addiction, Green. Are you addicted? *ba dum tss*
> 
> And with an addiction comes withdrawal symptoms... you sure you can stop so easily? Not a chance,,


	13. Gentle Persuasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you think Green likes me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You think, Gold?

Gold seemed pretty troubled this morning, even though Green hadn’t been bothering him for the past few weeks or so.

Actually, that was precisely the problem.

Green stopped coming for the sessions for a few days, with no explanation at all. This was weird, because Green had still been present in school as usual, and on all of those days - it was like Gold had completely slipped out of his memory somehow.

Even when he did come back, he still provided no explanation, and went straight into the lessons as per normal. And Green didn’t become any nicer.

In fact, Green was beginning to revert to jerk mode again, as if Green hated him even more, or completely forgot about anything that had happened before that. Gold knew that he was still trying to help, but Green was only becoming either really cold or really angry towards him.

(He still hasn’t given back Gold’s jacket, though, so that just made everything more confusing.)

Gold knew he should be happy Green was no longer bothering him, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.

Was he simply missing an explanation for Green’s sudden switch in attitude? Was he missing his jacket?

Or was he missing his annoying presence?

_“What if you are my medicine?”_

Gold couldn’t stop thinking about that. Why did Green say it like that? It sounded like a pick-up line, but the way he said it seemed to suggest something more than that...

The more distant Green felt from him, the bigger that emptiness grew. It wanted something, but it didn’t know what it wanted.

_“What if you are my medicine?”_

The words circled around that emptiness, taunting him. It made Gold edge closer to the answer, the thing to fi himself with. But a part of him didn’t want to even see the answer in the first place.

“Hey Gold~”

Gold’s thoughts were interrupted by his classmate. He looked up at him.

“What?” he asked.

“I heard Green’s got a new girlfriend~”

“...?! Since when?”

“Oh, it’s just some National Acting Academy student they’ve been talking about,” said Crys, who happened to be walking by.

“Who happens to be stunningly pretty, from what I’ve heard...” the classmate continued. “And she’s, what, five years older than him? The charm of a mature woman! A pretty girl with a handsome boy. It’s only fitting that they’re dating, you know?”

“...oh, okay.”

Crys raised her eyebrows. “You seem oddly calm about it.”

“Because it has nothing to do with me?”

A smirk from her classmate. “What, jealous?”

“No!? What the heck!”

Though now that they mentioned it, it did make some sense. If he was dating someone, wouldn’t she mind him acting all weird with another guy?

_Maybe he really just wanted to mess with me..._

But it didn’t make sense! Green’s attitude towards him was too strange to be just an act!

The girls eventually walked away, and at the same time, Silver walked in.

“Morning, Gold.”

“...Silver.”

“Hm?”

“Do you think Green likes me?”

Silver raised his eyebrows. “I mean, it’s funny you’d ask, because he’s always asking me about you.”

So Green still did think about him after all?

“Asking about me?” questioned Gold. “What about me?”

“Stupid things, like your birthday, your favourite colour, your favourite food, and he just asked me about a favourite ice-cream flavour...? He’s starting to sound like one of his own fangirls... Gold, what did you do to him?”

“What did I do to him? What _I_  did to him?! He’s just been doing all these things to me for no reason!”

“...what kind of things?”

“Like, he made me go out with him for ice-cream. And he’s planning to treat me an Unovan Split if I do well in math!! What does that tell you?”

“It tells me that he regards you as a close friend...?”

“Bullshit! You know what else he did? It was cold that day, and I left my jacket in class so I was freezing. So he offered his jacket to me, like one of those boyfriends in TV shows? Where the girl says she’s cold and the guy gives her his jacket? How could I live with him doing that to me?! But he forced me to, and now I’m still wearing his jacket because Green decided to take mine and hasn’t given it back. I don’t think he ever wants it back.”

“...well...”

“And then the next day, he gave me a huge bag of food for free, for no reason. Then he waited for me in the corridor to ask to have lunch together. I’m so mad about it... He bought me so much food, and I couldn’t possibly turn down food. And then he forced me to let him feed me! I was like, okay, fine. And then he freaking! Wiped my lips with his thumb!! I felt so... violated...”

Silver sighed. That cold, reserved dude sitting in class with his headphones on, pretending the rest of the world didn’t exist, suddenly acting so lovey-dovey with Gold? How was that not suspicious in the slightest?

“And you know what’s even more confusing? He’s been avoiding me lately. Giving me the ‘Cold Treatment’. Other than tutoring he has completely stopped being nice to me. He’s also not bothering me, and I know I should be happy but I’m just so confused! Why is he so damn confusing?”

Silver wanted to laugh, but he was confused as well.

This completely contradicted with the Green he’d been seeing in class lately - constantly distracted, flustered by insignificant things, jumpy, fidgety and even clingier towards him and Red... Then again, that made sense all the more: Green must have tried to push Gold out of his thoughts, and from first-hand experience Silver knew that it only made it harder to stop thinking about him.

“Have you ever told him you were uncomfortable with it?” asked Silver.

A sigh. “A lot of damn times by now! Seriously, can you ask Green what the hell is his problem?”

Silver seemed surprised. “Aren’t _you_  going to confront Green about this? Now that you know? He’s been dropping some large hints...”

“I... don’t know.” He shrugged. “And anyway, I don’t mind meeting him for tutoring stuff, but he’s always doing weird things to me!”

_Don’t evade the question, Gold..._  thought Silver, who now found the answer to his question very obvious.

“Why did you ask him tutor you, then? I thought you hated him!”

“Either he bothers me, or he bothers me while helping me pull up my grades! I had no choice, I had choose the second one, right?”

Silver put a hand to his chin. “I think he really sounds a lot like a helpless lovesick schoolboy.”

“And... what makes you say that?”

“You know those little kids who get a crush on someone and they’re embarrassed about it, so they constantly annoy their crush every day?”

“Well... yeah...” Gold shifted his body posture away from Silver, before he suddenly jumped up, shocking the other boy.

“Wait! Isn’t he already dating that girl?” he announced.

It was Silver’s turn to be surprised. “What girl?”

Gold seemed relieved. “How could I forget? That actress trainee in the National Acting University? Five years older than us? There’s a rumour he’s dating her, right?”

“Oh, that one.” Silver rolled his eyes. “From what I see, I know that Green would never date someone like that. Don’t believe in all rumours you hear.”

“I’m... not! ...I’m just saying!” His voice was starting to waver, because he had believed in it. It was the only excuse he had to deny the obvious, but now that even that was gone...

“Well,” Silver coughed, “So that rumour’s not true, because he’s obviously in love with you.”

Gold collapsed into his chair, admitting defeat at last.

“At least you finally have a love life going,” said Silver. “Plus, isn’t he everyone’s dream guy? It’ll be a serious tragedy if you turn him down.”

Gold could not imagine Green as a dream guy, no matter how hard he tried.

“Take this opportunity, Gold, and elevate your status. Green-”

Crys suddenly approached them.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Gold was too busy having a revelation, so Silver replied instead. “Well... through a careful analysis of Green’s recent behaviour... we’ve concluded that there is a 99% possibility that Green is in love with Gold.”

“Oh please, that’s so obvious,” laughed Crys. “I suppose Gold didn’t take it too well?”

“...how?” muttered Gold. “I thought he hated me...”

“If you ask me...” said Crys, seemingly deep in thought. “I think Green tops in this relationship.”

Gold’s face turned to thunder. “What the hell, Crys? What makes you think that he’ll ever top me?!”

“I didn’t say that,” Crys replied, smirking. “But really- do you think you could ever top him?”

“...Crys... I never knew you were that kind of person...”

“I agree,” said Silver. “He’s more dominant.”

“The hell, Silver, don’t take sides with her!” cried Gold. “Why did you bring it up...”

“It’s okay, Gold,” said Silver, patting his shoulder. “Some guys are born to bottom.”

Gold slumped onto his table.

“I’m a top, I swear...” he groaned. “I’m clearly stronger than that beanpole!”

“Being bottom is very noble, you know. They’re the ones who endure the most pain.”

“Silver, I will kill you!”

Gold attempted to hit Silver, but the latter was quick to react, holding out his own arms to stop him. It ended up as a wrestle with their arms.

“It’s okay, Gold,” said Silver, struggling. “Green likes a strong, feisty uke like you!”

While Gold was severely caught off guard, Silver sprinted out of the classroom before he could get clobbered.

“SILVER!”

Crys began to laugh her insides out as Gold clambered out of his seat, giving chase.

**~~~~**

Green quickly realised that his plan to ignore Gold was not working.

The more he tried to push Gold away from his thoughts, the worse it seemed to get?!

He had tried convincing himself that it was a passing phase, but he knew that this ‘phase’ was too damn difficult to get through without at least exploding a few times. It was absolute torture.

Trying to avoid the tutoring sessions was killing the inner teacher in his very soul...

His thoughts were really getting worse. Green was desperately trying to stop the millions of unspeakable fantasies, all created by his imagination against his will, but to no avail. He was nearly convinced that seeing the real deal would snap him out of it, but that would just lead to...

Silver stepped back into the classroom, seeming a little out of breath as he paced back to his desk.

Green turned around in his seat, facing him. “You okay?”

“It’s fine.” Green thought he saw Silver smile a little, but dismissed the idea.

There was a momentary pause while Green processed a thought.

“Hey Silver,” whispered Green. “Uh... about what had happened between you and Red...”

“Oh.” Silver scratched his head. “I, um... you may have heard that we’re together now, so...”

“Yeah, I have. I mean, it’s obvious.”

Silver looked around, appearing a little self-conscious. “Really?”

Green made a ‘hmph’ sound. “Not to the Straights, at least.”

Silver’s face cracked a small smile. “Well, okay. I... would appreciate if you didn’t tell anyone, though.”

“I won’t,” said Green. “Hey, but... if he’s your boyfriend... and he’s also kind of your stepbrother... isn’t that a bit-”

“I know.” Silver looked at him sadly.

“...okay... but... are you sure about this, though? Red told me about what happened, and... I don’t know, but aren’t you disturbed by him at all?”

“Of course I was, but... I know how Red is like. He does stupid things sometimes.”

“...” Green couldn’t disagree with that, but...

Seeing his reaction to that, Silver seemed a little sceptical now. “Green, if you have anything against me dating Red... just say so.”

“Ah, no...” muttered Green. “It’s just that...”

He sunk his head into the table.

“He’s my best friend, Silver, we’ve known each other for years, and I’ve never seen him act the way he does around you. It’s... actually frightening... and, I’m probably just being over-protective, but... I can’t lose him, I won’t let you harm him. That’s the feeling I get, even though I trust you. Really.” Green looked back up weakly at him. “Do you get what I mean?”

Silver nodded his head slowly, with a strange expression on his face.

“...yes... I know that feeling...” he said in a soft voice, then reaching out his hand to pat Green on the shoulder.

“Promise me one thing,” he said suddenly.

“Yes?”

“Promise me you’d take good care of Gold.”

“...?!”

“I’m serious. And please, don’t bully him anymore. He acts like he’s all tough and strong but he is a very fragile guy. Please treat him well.”

“...what?”

“I trust you to take care of him.”

“...”

**~~~~**

The day had come. There was half an hour left before the start of the tests, and everyone was busy cramming last-minute revisions into their small, bright minds.

Fifteen minutes till they started giving out the papers.

Gold was looking through the formulae list again, confirming once, twice, three times that he had remembered them correctly.

Holy shit! When was the last time he felt so motivated to do well for a test?!

Ten minutes.

Gold had to admit, he was getting nervous. What if he made a stupid mistake and ended up getting an 84%? Man, that would be the most infuriating thing ever...

Five minutes.

Gold closed his eyes, attempting to calm himself down now that there was really nothing much he could do except read his list again.

“Gold.”

The voice was deep, and was directly in front of him. Gold opened his eyes, and at the same time wondering why the voice sounded so much like-

Green?!

There he was, headphones hanging around his neck, hands in pockets (of Gold’s jacket, which said guy did not forget about), and had somehow entered his classroom even though the test was starting so soon?

“...what are you doing here?”

“The test’s starting soon,” said Green, casually. “Remember the A grade.”

Gold meekly nodded his head. “Thanks. You better go back, though.”

They exchanged a few seconds of awkward eye contact.

“Good luck,” said Green finally, giving him a small smile. “I believe in you.”

“...come again?”

“I said,” repeated Green, with completely no hint of sarcasm or impatience, “I believe in you.”

“...” Gold was genuinely speechless.

What the hell? How does a cheesy phrase like that sound so good coming out of Green?!

This was unfair. Gold could feel his genuine goodwill, and it made him... it made him feel...

All warm and fuzzy inside?!

Green didn’t say another word and left the classroom.

“What was that about?” asked Crys with curiosity, since she was the one who let him in in the first place.

“Nothing much,” said Gold, shrugging. “He just wished me good luck.”

“Aw, he cares,” Crys commented, smiling. “Anyway, I hope you do well too! Ganbatte! I believe in you!” She clenched a fist with much vigour.

“...good luck to you too...”

It sounded perfectly fine when Crys said it. Why was it so different coming from Green?

A minute before the test, and he took in a deep breath. _Alright, I’ve done all my preparations. I’ve memorised all my formulas. That Unovan Split will be mine for free._

_He believes in me._

Of course! Gold made a sudden realisation: it couldn’t be that Green stopped caring about him! He must have put on a cold front on purpose, rough him up, and give him a taste of war, right? Wasn’t he that good of a teacher?          

...whether Gold was actually right on that didn’t matter very much, did it?

And with those words of encouragement still ringing in his ears, he entered the battlefield, valiantly and with all his might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Green tries, he really does...
> 
> So uh I’ve decided to follow a friend’s advice and like, give an explanation on Green’s strange scolding behaviour?? So I made a few edits on the chapter itself, and I added the explanation there but in case anyone wants to read it here, it’s here too:
>
>> Plot-wise I needed Gold to have a Valid Reason to hate Green.
>> 
>> I wanted Green’s ‘outburst’ to be acted and like, done for the sake of being done because that’s Green’s dumb plan, to confuse and offend the shit out of Gold? Not because he’s actually angry but just petty?? but then I realised it was written in Gold’s perspective so that complicated things??? I added a bIT to it to make it seem more cold-hearted than actual anger but eh I can’t do very much now.
>> 
>> Character-wise I knew Green was kind of impulsive in the first place, and I didn’t want him to directly do the violence with Gold so... psychological tactics
>> 
>> tldr: I fucked up
> 
> But hey, whatever, I like what I wrote 


	14. Test Results

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold really wishes he hadn't said anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The long-awaited test results! Finally! Has Green’s out-of-the-blue encouragement really helped Gold this time? Will Gold finally get his revenge on Silver for calling him an uke? Find out on this chapter of The School Prince!
> 
> ...I don’t know where I’m going with this so, enjoy
> 
> Note: In China, apart from the usual metric grading system ie. As and Bs, there is also a rank system. It works this way: In a class of 40 people, the Rank 1 score would mean they have attained the highest grade in the class, while Rank 40 would mean they have done the worst. Obviously, this systems has its pros and cons, but that’s the reality!

Today was the Day of Judgement.

Or more specifically, the _results_  of the Day of Judgement, also known as Gold’s Impending Doom.

He was going to receive his math test results this afternoon. Needless to say, he had been extremely antsy and nervous today, and it only got worse as the lessons progressed.

At first, it had only itched at the back of his tired, drowsy mind in the morning, but as he sat in the lecture theatre now, waiting to get back his test paper, it gradually progressed to teeth gritting and whining with a fellow classmate, sitting adjacent to him, about their incoming results.

_Come on... 85% and above... 85%..._

Frankly, although the test made up a pretty damn huge percentage of his overall grade, the mark he got wouldn’t contribute much to his final grade at the end of the year, so he wasn’t so worried about that.

He was just extremely in the mood for a Unovan Jumbo Split today, and he wanted it so damn badly.

It didn’t help that there were two other classes in the lecture hall with his own, all anxiously waiting for their papers in a hushed sort of worried chatter. The fact that there were three classes packed in one tiny little hall just added to the pressure.

_That jerk better not go against his word..._

The reason for this arrangement was so that his math teacher, Miss Sabrina, didn’t have to go through the test questions three times with each individual class. Might as well arrange a time for everyone to cry in pain together, right?

And now, Miss Sabrina finally started her arbitrary yet predictable pre-result-announcement speech, which always followed a standard format. It didn’t make it any less scary, though.

“So, as you all know, this test was... more difficult than what you’re used to.”

Groans rose from the student crowd, which was quickly silenced by Miss Sabrina’s _I-am-waiting_  stare.

“And as with all tests, there were people who did well, much better than before. Yes, even with the higher difficulty, some were able to improve. Well done.”

Suddenly, the sea of students were getting excited, quietly and not-so-quietly talking about their possibly better grades.

A part of Gold was holding onto that hope, too. Top 10... Come _on_...

“But. There were also some students, who have done well in the past, but failed to do so in this test. And by failed, I mean, severely dropped in rank. You’ll know who you are when you get back your test papers.”

The whole hall hushed down into complete silence, and that rising hope in Gold’s heart immediately plunged.

But, no! Surely, he did fairly okay? He didn’t completely blank out at most the questions! Surely he wouldn’t have dropped several ranks on top of his already abysmal rank?!

“So. I would like to give some honourable mentions for those who belonged in the former. First of all, Wally from 2-B, who is now Rank 7, a remarkable improvement from our recuperating boy. Well done.”

Loud clapping and cheers were roused for this meek boy, who paced down the stairs bashfully.

“From 2-F. I would like to congratulate Emma, who has steadily been improving since the start of the year and is now at Rank 2. Well done as well.”

Another round of clapping, as the girl modestly received her test paper.

“Now, last but not least, 2-G.”

She sighed, almost ominously.

“Gold.”

Said guy’s ears perked up, anxiously waiting for her response. It seemed rather mixed.

“I’ve been asking around, and apparently you’ve been working very hard to improve your math for over a month now.”

Small hoots came from the student crowd, particularly from his row.

“Honestly, I can’t believe this. You were previously in Rank 29.”

She garnered several laughs, mostly from his classmates, but some students from the other classes who knew him as well.

“I wanted to tell everyone that the key to doing well in math is just hard work and practice, because he’s been doing it. I know this isn’t magic or some sort of fluke, because I’ve seen you improve drastically in your daily work too.”

“Gold. You’re Rank 8 for this test. Keep it up.”

A thunderous cheer came from his class, mostly from the girls, funnily enough. His seat partners were all firmly clapping him on the back, and painfully, Gold might want to add. He was practically shaking as he made his way down the aisle.

He received his paper, and as he did, he caught a full view of Miss Cold Sabrina actually smiling _warmly_  at him, as warm as she could get, anyway. He could only give her a sheepish smile in return.

The entire hall laughed this time.

When Gold went back to his seat, his classmates were all peering over at his paper, as if to confirm his grade.

It was a 90%.

“Holy fucking shit. It’s real.”

Half a year ago, Gold couldn’t even dream of getting an 80% grade, let alone 90%... his head was spinning. He couldn’t believe it.

A gigantic grin was on his face, while the rest of his classmates had their papers slowly distributed back to them.

_Fuck yeah! I get my Unova Split!_

Gold couldn’t wait to shove his grade into Green’s smug face, although on second thought, Green knowing that Gold’s grade was because of his expert tutoring skills would probably puff up his ego even more. Regardless, Gold didn’t care anymore. He just wanted Green to see how happy he was, he just wanted Green to be so fucking proud of him, he just wanted to see Green give him that same smile that Miss Sabrina had given him -

“Okay. We’ll go through corrections now, starting from the most badly done question. I hope you’ve brought your foolscap papers, because you’ll need to write it down and hand it up to me. And I know the teachers expect you all to use a green pen for corrections, but any colour is fine. There’s no need to write in green pen, it’s an ugly colour anyway...”

“Hey! That’s unfair, I like green.”

In Gold’s dazed and slightly delirious state, he shouted this in protest, causing his classmates to immediately burst into laughter.

“...?” Gold was utterly baffled at their reaction.

There were two questions in his head - Had he said it _that_  loudly? And what was so funny about -

And then it hit him. His classmates couldn’t tell the difference between small-letter green and capitalised-G green.

“Gold,” scolded Miss Sabrina, though half-jokingly, “I know that you’re a little drunk on ecstasy, and that we all love Green, but please control yourself.”

“Oh god...” Gold buried his head into his test paper. At least it was nice in there.

**~~~~**

Gold was just heading back to class along with everyone else, when he heard a classmate beside him mention the phrase “fruit smoothie”.

“They are the best thing ever, dude!” Gold exclaimed. It shocked everyone except for the classmates in question, who were already used to Gold butting in excitedly.

“See?” said the first guy, turning to his friend. “People like them.”

“Huh, I only like the vanilla or chocolate ones. The fruit ones are too... fruity.”

Gold and the first guy simultaneously disagreed.

“But the fruit makes it better!”

“All of them are good,” Gold protested, as they walked into the classroom. “Equality for all smoothies!”

Crys joined in too, as she often did when it came to conversations with Gold. “You have a supporter here.”

The three of them gathered in mutual agreement. Meanwhile, the single minority was left out of the group, feeling a little sad for himself.

What started as a small group of fruit smoothie supporters expanded into the whole classroom, and soon everyone was involved, dividing themselves into the Supporter and Sceptic groups, with the former greatly outweighing the latter. Gold seemed pleased.

Crys suddenly snapped her fingers. “Have you tried those exotic flavoured ones?” she asked.

Gold seemed appalled. “Are you insulting my expertise as a smoothie-lover? Of course I have.”

Everyone laughed. “They’re pretty rare,” added the first guy. “You only really see them in a few places around here.”

The ‘ordinary’ smoothies consisted of strawberry, apple, banana, pear, or any locally grown fruit... Rarer smoothies consisted of rarer fruits, like blackberry, dragonfruit, and other such ‘exotic’ fruits.

Crys raised her eyebrows. “Mango or kiwi?” she asked Gold. “Personally, I think kiwi is better.”

Gold looked offended.

“Sorry, Crys, but mango clearly goes better with smoothies.”

Crys shook her head. “There isn’t that much of a difference, but I don’t know. I don’t like mango, it’s sour sometimes.”

Gold huffed. “What a hater. Mango smoothies are the best smoothies.”

“What happened to equality for all smoothies?” joked the other classmate.

“I don’t get it. Why do you even like it so much? It isn’t even a popular flavour.” Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and then she sighed, with a knowing smile. “Oh. Is it because mango isyellow? Like, you know, _gold_ en yellow?”

Gold puffed himself up. “Of course, but it’s also way more than that. The smooth texture, the delicately sweet taste~! It’s perfect in a blend!”

The one Sceptic from earlier held in his laughter before speaking.

“You know, Crys, if we go by that logic Gold should’ve liked kiwi, because it’s _green_.”

The whole class laughed as Gold opened his mouth in shock.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Crys bowed her head. “It was clear that you couldn’t choose kiwi out loud, or it would’ve been too obvious.”

Gold banged his fist on the table.

“I’m hurt!” he exclaimed. “Why does everyone have to take my words another way? Look, Crys. I just happened to like the dark, grassy-green ink in my conveniently coloured green pen, okay?”

“Hmm... of course, Gold.”

The class continued laughing.

Gold sunk his head in defeat.

“Oh god, and you said it so loudly, too...” a classmate snickered. “Oh my god. You made your confession in front of 2-B and 2-F. Good going, Gold, now it isn’t even a class secret anymore.”

“Class... secret...” muttered Gold, before fully understanding the severity of his actions. “Oh, fuck!”

“2-B is literally right next to 2-A, you know. You sure none of them are gonna spill the beans to Green...”

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck...” cursed Gold, sounding like tears were about to come out from his eyes. “I can’t make him think that there’s any chance of us being...”

“But he already likes you, right?” laughed Crys. “Might as well grab the opportunity.”

“?!?!”

The whole class burst into a frenzied furore.

“What? Crys, are you serious?”

“ _Likes_  him?”

“Yeah, an ex-classmate in 2-A told me he likes Gold.” A smile crept up her face. “You know Gold’s wearing Green’s jacket right now? And Green’s wearing his, too.”

_“SLANDER!”_  screamed Gold, but no one was listening to him anymore.

“I can’t believe this... they’re seriously like a couple...”

“Can you imagine it though? Green hugging Gold’s jacket to sleep... burying his head in Gold’s scent...”

“AAAAHHHHHH!!!”

Gold was this close to setting his jacket on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gold... calm down... looks like instead of getting revenge he gets beaten down even more (lol)
> 
> Not sure how relevant lecture theatres are in high schools because I’m mostly referring from the novel... but surely there’s a place for mass lectures, right? Aren’t they high school students...? am I being illogical


	15. Gentle Persuasion, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever liked someone so much that all you want to do is annoy the hell out of them? Until... all you want to do is get their attention? Until it feels like you’re... addicted to him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been forced to update tsp (by a certain someone *ahem*) so here it is! Tell me if there are any errors :)

Green was about to receive his math paper today. He had heard from a classmate that classes B, F and G were receiving their test papers today, and he couldn’t stop wondering about how Gold did.

He told himself that he’d be pissed off if Gold really got an A grade for a test as hard as this one. He told himself he’d hate having to actually spend money on him. But deep down, he knew that he couldn’t possibly be. If anything, Green would be delighted to have an opportunity to spend time with Gold.

Green spent most of his mental energy imagining the ice-cream date- no, not date, but it might as well be one. The Unovan Split was in that ice-cream parlour near the school, so that meant-

_Wait a minute. That actress girl-_

Irrelevant. She was a hindrance, someone bothersome who didn’t deserve to interrupt his fantasy. Now, where was he... oh, holding Gold’s hand, buying him the ice-cream, seeing his eyes light up as he did - he took reference from the first time Gold ever mentioned the Unovan Split - and then feeding it to him lovingly, then -

Oh _no_. Why was he thinking about things like this?

It distracted him for the whole of today’s math lesson.

Why couldn’t he stop thinking about Gold?!

“Green... are you okay?”

This was a question from his homeroom teacher, who had asked to see him outside after class, and was now standing in the corridor with him.

“I’m... fine,” said Green, rather unconvincingly. “Why?”

“Oh, no, it’s just that... I’ve noticed you’ve become really restless lately. You haven’t been paying attention in classes... and you always look like you’re thinking about something... are you alright? If there’s anything going on that you need advice or comfort on, then feel free to tell me, okay? I’m always all-ears.”

Green hesitated for a long while, before finally sighing. “Miss, I... think I’m in love with someone.”

“...oh?!” she exclaimed, as if it was the very last thing she’d expect him to fret over. “And does she know about it?”

_Gold’s not a she, but whatever, he looks like one anyway._

“I don’t know, I’ve never confessed.”

“Do you plan on confessing?”

“...I don’t think so.”

“Oh, and that’s driving you crazy?”

“I... I don’t know, I just can’t stop thinking about him.”

She blinked once, and Green realised his mistake.

It was an unspoken rule - never give away your homosexuality or queerness to any teaching authority, or you’ll risk being sent to the principal’s office, getting your parents called (in Green’s case, grandparent), and get booted out of the school. So went the rumour.

Green was readying an excuse and a half for his blunder, but his homeroom teacher simply smiled.

“No wonder you never get affected by all these girls,” she laughed.

Green wasn’t sure if he should let his guard down yet, but she patted his shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s fine. I’m a young teacher, so I know about this stuff. I’m supportive of you no matter what gender you’re attracted to.”

“Thank you,” Green whispered, letting out a huge breath of air and realising how tense he had been.

“You see, the reason I was so surprised is because I thought it may have something to do with that trainee actress people were talking about.”

Green rolled his eyes. “She’s real. But I don’t like her at all, she’s delusional.”

“I get it,” the teacher replied, winking. “Okay, shh, the school will kill me for saying this, but I really think that if you like someone, you should at least be open about your feelings. Denying it and hiding it won’t do any favours - see, it’s affecting your ability to concentrate in class! I... know you have a reputation. But, coming from a hopeless romantic like me, I don’t think you should let that affect you. Be with the one you love!”

Green gave her a blank stare, to which she laughed at.

“I’m sorry, did I overwhelm you? Maybe you need some time to rethink things. Okay? No stress.”

She patted his shoulder again, with two firm pats.

“Good luck, and make it through the lessons today!”

“...okay.”

Green went back to class with a newfound respect for his teacher.

**~~~~**

When Green got back to his seat, Red was standing there, arms folded and his foot tapping on the ground.

“So, what happened~” he asked, expectantly. “Did you get into trouble this time?”

“Nah, she was just worried for me.”

Red raised an eyebrow. “Worried because...?”

“I was really distracted, okay. I needed to think of a way to get rid of Actress Girl.”

He wasn’t completely lying.

“You’re not even referring to her by name,” Red chuckled.

“Well, I politely declined her confession. I don’t even know her, why would I date her? But she continues to chase me and even spreads weird rumours about me? How is that not annoying?”

Red became a little concerned for his friend. “Hey, relax, don’t get so worked up. It’s not like you.”

“...I’m sorry,” sighed Green, patting his friend on the shoulder. “It’s just that I’ve been really stressed lately.”

“Thinking about Gold again, huh?”

Green nearly tripped on his chair.

“I’m sorry?”

“Haha, don’t act dumb with me. It’s obvious you’re fretting so much over the girl because you think it’ll affect your relationship with Gold.”

“...no. You’re far off. She’s just that annoying. She’s... nice, but not when she’s trying too hard. I told her I don’t like girls and she didn’t believe me, wow. I don’t even know whether to call it homophobic or what.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you obviously have a crush on Gold.”

“...”

Green had nothing to say. He simply sat down in his seat, sighed, and looked back up at Red again.

“Any ideas on how to politely shoo her away for good?”

“Well, if you’d like to hear my opinion... I think the only way to get her off you, is to completely crush her hopes of being together with you. And in order to do that... you can convince her you’re already dating someone else. And to really do that, you have to show her in action! Bring her someone you clearly care much more about, and show her how much you love him, right in front of her. And of course, I’m talking about... _Gold!_ ”

“So... you want Gold to pose as my boyfriend.”

“Exactly!”

“Then you’d have to ask him. He’d probably say no.”

“Not if you woo him! If you manage to win his heart, if you just confess in the first place, or whatever, just bribe him with something he won’t ever turn down, then you’d have a free Gold to chase her away with.”

Bribe...

Something he’d never turn down...

Green quickly realised something. And his eyes lit up! It was the perfect opportunity for a perfect plan, and if it all went well, he could kill two birds with one stone -

And then he realised a major flaw in that plan, and sunk into his chair.

“I can’t.”

“Why not? Convince her you’re dating him!”

“I can’t, because I need to be intimate with him. See, if I don’t act all couple-y with Gold, she wouldn’t believe me. _But_ , if anyone catches me actually being lovey-dovey with him, especially if we’re in school uniform, _and_  if proof gets into the hands of the school, I’m going to be in deep shit. So would Gold.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Red sighed. “If only Gold was a girl.”

“...”

“Anyway, are you confessing to him or what?”

“No.”

“What?! After all that?”

“After all what?”

“After finally finding someone you’re interested in, are you just going to ignore it? Green, you’re my best friend, and this is the first time you’ve fallen in love with someone. I _need_  to push you into it!”

Green stared at him for a couple of seconds.

“You know I used to like you, right.”

“...what?”

He realised it too late.

Green was shocked at himself. After all those years of keeping it in, hiding it like his life depended on it, he just... blurted it out like no one’s business?

“...you heard me.”

Green felt ashamed, mentally preparing himself for Red if was going to be weird about it.

“Ah... well...” Said guy rubbed the back of his head. “Since you said it, I guess I should admit that I used to like you too. A long time ago. Not anymore though.”

Green was speechless. Could it be... that there was a point in time when the two of them mutually liked each other, but nothing ever happened because neither of them did anything? He felt like the whole world was about to spin and topple him over.

“Alright, my head hurts,” he said, sounding exhausted. “You can go back to your seat now.”

“No!!”

Red was adamant.

“Now I am hundred-percent sure I need to get you together with Gold! I need to right this injustice!”

Now Green really didn’t know what to say. They had both discovered ground-breaking facts about each other, and now they were just going to move on?

It was that easy?

_Holy shit._  Green realised that he should’ve done that way earlier, it would’ve saved him the trouble.

“Fine. Tell me your plans.”

“First thing’s first, you gotta confess to Gold.”

A long, tired sigh. “Really?”

“Duh, that’s the first step.”

“Okay. How do I do that?”

“Simple. Meet up with him, probably make it a little more private. Then tell him you like him.”

“...that’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s the basics, but if you wanna add frills and fluff, feel free.”

“I... just go up to him and tell him?”

“Yeap. Three words: ‘I like you’. Maybe chocolates or flowers would help bring the message across.”

“I...” Green couldn’t even imagine those three words coming out of his mouth in quick succession. It seemed too unreal, too far-fetched, too out of his calibre.

Red prepped himself, sitting cross-legged on Silver’s chair. Green automatically turned his chair back to face him, too.

“Okay, Green. Let’s do a warm up since you’re unsure of yourself. First, try saying it to me, get the feeling right.”

“Okay.” Green took in a deep breath, willing those three words out of him.

“...”

_I - like - you_! What was so difficult about those words? Yet Green could barely even think about those words, let alone say them out.

“Come on, just try,” coaxed Red.

After a long bout of internal turmoil, he finally expressed a long overdue confession.

“I like you.”

Red marvelled at how bothered Green was over three simple words.

“Okay, good! It should sound natural like that. Now, pretend I’m Gold. Say it to me again.”

“Okay.” Green stared into Red’s eyes with steely resolve, picturing Gold’s face in place of Red’s.

“I...”

The very thought of seeing Gold right in front of him, just imagining him in Red’s place... it was making him extremely flustered...

Red only caught a glimpse of Green’s face suddenly twisting into an expression of pain, as the guy slammed his upper body onto the table, covering his head with folded arms, practically shaking.

“I can’t do this...”

Green had broken down completely...

Red was utterly baffled. He knew that Green was uncomfortable the first time, and for good reason. Green wasn’t used to it, of course he was uncomfortable. This time, however, he seemed genuinely embarrassed by it. He’d gotten so worked up thinking about Gold that even the thought of him got him nervous - the tips of his ears were burning bright red.

Red sighed. Why was this kid acting like this...

Right then, Silver entered the classroom and saw Red perched on his seat, and Green in that... questionable position...

“What happened?” he asked in curiosity.

“Oh, Silver. I’m just trying to get Green to practice confessing to Gold, but he’s being problematic.”

“Oh.” Silver turned to Green. “Just so you know, Gold knows that you like him.”

Green lifted up his head in shock. “...what?!”

“Yeah, it was pretty obvious. I helped convince him.”

Red beamed. “You got me covered even without me asking. Truly, a dutiful wife...”

Silver immediately backed away, giving Red the evil eye. Red chuckled his _I’m-joking_  laugh.

“See, it’s much easier now that he knows,” he said, turning to Green, and then back to Silver again. “What was his reaction, though?”

“I think... he’s in a state of denial. He can’t really wrap his head around it.”

“So it isn’t a rejection! This means that you _have_  to confess to him, Green.” Red declared.

“I’ll help you out,” Silver agreed. “If you need me to pass a message or, I don’t know, set up props, just ask.”

Green’s ears were still as crimson as they were before.

“No, go away you guys, I don’t need you interfering.”

“Green,” said Red sternly, “If you don’t confess to Gold, I’d have to do it myself...”

“Huh? Why would _you_  confess to him?”

“I meant like, I’ll write a note to Gold and pretend it’s you. So no matter what, Gold will have to read your confession, it’s only the matter of who will write it.”

Green really had no choice in the matter...

“Fine,” said Green, finally. “I’ll write him a letter.”

**~~~~**

Green seemed fairly normal in the midst of writing the love letter. But by the time Green was done, he slammed his face onto the table, shocking the nearby classmates. Red had to manually lift his head up to get him back into the real world.

“Come on, don’t be embarrassed, let’s read out your love letter,” he announced loudly.

At the sound of ‘love letter’, everyone in the class had their heads turned to the two of them.

Red cleared his throat, and began reading out what he wrote.

“To the idiot who needs to be taught basic mathematics at the age of seventeen: You are a dumbass who takes up my time, is fun to bully, and eats stupidly expensive ice-cream. I am in love with that dumbass.”

The whole class started whooping.

“Nice letter,” said a classmate, “Who is it for? For you, Red?”

“Dude,” said another classmate, knocking the first one in the head with a pencil. “Red tops the class in math. That letter does not apply to him at all.”

“It’s very you,” said Red to Green, putting it down. “Go on, give it to him.”

The classroom went wild.

“ _It’s really a he?!_ ”

Green slammed his face against the table again. _Good going, Red, now everyone knows I’m..._

“I support!” yelled an enthusiastic male voice. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“None of your business,” snapped Green, lifting his head in the voice’s direction.

“Isn’t it that guy from 2-G? Remember the ice-cream date? ‘ _Stupidly expensive ice-cream_ ’, right?”

Green was shocked. How did they still remember...?

“Yup,” said Silver. “His name’s Gold.”

Green turned to Silver with a look of ultimate betrayal.

“The pretty boy?”

“I remember that post!”

“Oh, Gold? He’s pretty cool!”

“I met him before! He’s really cute and really easy to talk to. He totally deserves Green.”

“Yeah, they’ll look good together.”

Green nearly screamed out loud. He really couldn’t escape this now...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know what really kills me? It’s the fact that Gold is actually genuinely well-liked among his peers, but because of what he was like before high school he just has this. crippling self-image, like he’s scared to even try to be popular now even though everyone likes him
> 
> I *points at self* have no right to complain because I’m the writer  
> *finger guns at self* why do you do this


	16. Rapid Humiliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gold finally got the recognition he wanted from Green, but then the day quickly went down a spiral of doom...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’d... like to apologise in advance for this chapter,,,

Gold made his way up to Class 2-A after school today, proudly holding his math test results, ready to shove them into Green’s face.

Politely, he knocked on the classroom door panel, awaiting the class representative’s response.

This class rep didn’t take very long - he appeared at the door and smiled at him. “What’s up?”

“Yo. Have you guys ended class?” asked Gold.

“Yeah, why?”

“Oh, I just wanted to see Green,” he explained, grinning as he held up his paper for the class rep to see. “Look! I’ve never done this well for math before! I gotta show it to him - he owes me ice-cream now.”

Immediately, puzzle pieces clicked in the class rep’s mind - Gold could see something light up in his eyes. The class rep smiled strangely back at him.

“Sure, he’s right there,” he replied, his voice sounding a little higher pitched than before.

“...?” Gold was a little confused, but went on anyway.

Green waved a hello as Gold approached his desk. “Hey.”

“Hey Green,” Gold replied. “Where’s Silv and Red?”

Green shrugged. “Somewhere. I don’t know, they left together earlier.”

“Damn, hope they didn’t forget me. We were supposed to meet later.”

They were going to go out together with Red. Gold wanted to see for himself how well his best friend’s boyfriend treated him, after all.

“Eh, they wouldn’t... I think.” Even Green seemed a little unsure. “Their bags are still in class.”

“...let’s just hope they don’t. Oh, did you get back your math results? What rank did you get?” Gold sounded hopeful.

“Oh, Rank 2.”

“...”

That immediately dampened the mood. How could he just announce his Rank 2 grade so flippantly? Was it normal for him to achieve such high results?

But of course. Who else was good enough to tutor a near-failure like him?

Man, this guy’s ability was way out of his league.

“I was this close to getting full marks for this paper, I had the bonus question and everything... but I had to lose marks for this stupid careless mistake I made. Two plus eight is twelve, apparently? And because of that, Red beat me. Again. Fuck this...” Green trailed off.

Gold suddenly didn’t want to talk anymore. _Go on, tell me about your terrible tragedy, Green._

“And you just got back your math paper, right?” asked Green. “How did you do?”

“Ah... okay, so,” said Gold, with a fresh smile on his face. “Look at how much I got for math this time.”

As Green took a look at his papers, the rest of his classmates seemed to silently migrate to the further ends of the classroom, as if all giving Green the private space they thought he needed.

“I’m... that’s an A alright.” Green looked up at Gold, smiling gently. “You really did it. I’m proud of you.”

And with that, Green gave him a warm smile.

_H-holy shit?_

This was even wilder than what Gold had expected. He expected niceties, maybe a bit of banter, but this? With Green looking at him like that, praising him so earnestly... Gold felt like his heart was being hit by thunder.

“R-really,” said Gold, attempting to laugh it off.

Green chuckled. “I expected nothing less from you. You were improving really quickly.” He then suddenly seemed flustered. “...sorry for bailing on you on a few of the sessions, it was uncalled for. Despite that, you managed to pull through... I’m proud.” He gave him another, this time slightly sheepish smile.

_C-cute?!_

Gold felt like his entire moral ground was being shaken to the core.

How had he never seen this side of him before?!

Erase, erase... Gold had to erase this image of Green before it became permanently embedded in his godforsaken memories...

Green looked like he had something else on his mind... but simply decided not to say it.

Gold sighed. “Y’know... I’m going to end up missing you.”

“...?” Green raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean by that?”

“As in... I’ll miss being tutored by you. You’re a good teacher, you know that?” Gold looked at him, giving him a less-than-enthusiastic, but genuine smile. Then his facial expression abruptly changed, replaced with a scowl.

“I mean, it’s not like I enjoyed it or anything, you suck as a person, but, argh, I don’t know... I... like the lessons? No, that’s not it...”

Green stared at him with a faraway look.

“Forget it. Forget I said anything,” ended Gold, looking away in embarrassment.

Green kept silent for a while longer before suddenly speaking.

“Okay then, let’s start on today’s tutoring session.”

Gold looked back up at him, seeming confused.

“W-wait, really? But tests have just ended? Plus my math is like, way better now? H-hey, are you serious?”

“You think? Your math is decent now, yes, but what about your other subjects? Physics? Chemistry? The last time I checked, you don’t do very well for chemistry. How much did you get this time?”

“...I got a C...”

“That proves my point.”

“Hey, it was almost a B, okay?”

“Not good enough. It has to be a high B at the very least. So now, we’ll move our focus to chemistry.”

Gold groaned. “I’m supposed to meet Silv and Red for dinner... it’s an early dinner...”

“And what time is that?”

“...it’s at 4.30pm...”

“So we have about two hours for today’s session.”

Gold couldn’t argue anymore...

**~~~~**

Gold was finally released from chemistry hell.

“Silver!”

Finally spotting the mop of red hair after running out of the class in a fit of frenzy, Gold was hundred-percent ready to crush his best buddy in a hug. And so he did, in a suffocating embrace.

“H...hello...Gold...” Silver struggled, tugging gently at Gold for him to let go, to no avail. “What happened?”

“There is no end to hell!” he cried, burying his head in his shoulder. “Green won’t let me go from his tutoring hell! I’m gonna _die_...”

 _You’re the one who said you’d miss his lessons_... thought a 2-A classmate as she walked past on the way to the restroom.

“You didn’t do well for math after all?” asked Silver, sympathetically. “It’s okay-”

“I got a 90%.”

“...?!” Silver pulled him away to face him. “That’s amazing?! Never in all my years of knowing you have you ever gotten anything above 70%!”

“Yes, but now Green wants to tutor me in Chemistry.”

“Well... you do need it...”

“Silver!”

“What? I’m being objective here.”

“I don’t need you to be objective! I want you to hate him with me!”

“...no... Why do you hate him if he’s been so nice to you? Did he confess to you yet?”

“...what?”

Silver smirked. “I guess he hasn’t...”

“You... asked him to?”

“Red did. He even made Green write a love letter for you.”

“You’re joking...” Gold dry-laughed. “He’d never do that. Stop matchmaking us...”

“Why not? You see, if my best friend and my boyfriend’s best friend become boyfriends themselves... won’t that be a complete circle?”

“Complete circle your ass,” cursed Gold.

Suddenly, Green and Red appeared from inside the class, walking out together.

“Hey,” Red greeted first. “What are you guys talking about?”

“...” Both Gold and Silver stared at each other, as if prompting the other to explain on their behalf.

The two of them headed over to Red’s side, ready to go.

“Bye,” they both called out to Green.

Green was silent for a few seconds.

“Wait!” he shouted suddenly, with a look Gold knew meant that he was scheming something.

“Hm?” asked Red, stopping himself, causing the other two to stop as well. “Is there anything?”

“Gold,” Green continued, “Why don’t we go get our Unovan Split now? It’ll be more fun than third-wheeling their date, anyway.”

“Excuse you, I handle myself very well in a three-way conversation. Anyway, why would I want to ditch my best friend for _you_?” He tapped his feet impatiently. “Sorry, but I haven’t eaten lunch, and I’m starving.”

Red chuckled. “Green, you can come have dinner with us. My treat.”

“...” Gold was apprehensive at first, but decided he wasn’t all that against it. After all the impulse food spending Green did, he needed every cent he could save.

“Thanks, Red,” Green replied.

“Hey, no problem. And if you want to leave earlier to have your ice-cream afterwards or whatever, go ahead!”

“But, won’t it be kind of rude to just... leave...” went Gold.

“No way! Don’t worry about us, we’re all friends anyway. Besides, we were going to visit Mom and Dad, right, Silver?” asked Red, smiling widely at the redhead.

“...yeah...”

Gold was beginning to think that Red had a hand in this plan.

“Actually, I’d really appreciate it if he doesn’t join us,” he commented, coughing.

“Why not, Gold,” Silver added, his eyes with a rare hopeful glint. “Come on, just let him come with us.”

_Are... all of you in it together..._

**~~~~**

After a fairly large dinner, Gold and Green said their goodbyes and left, with full, satisfied stomachs.

“Still in the mood for ice-cream?” asked Green, with an eyebrow raised.

“Ah,” sighed Gold, patting his stomach. “Of course. I’m always a slut for ice-cream.”

Green involuntarily gulped at the phrasing. “Sure.”

They walked along the shop-lined streets as they would in silence, as Gold scrolled through his phone, bored. While engrossed in his Instagram feed, he was about to crash into a tree, until Green tugged on his arm and swerved him out of the way.

“Look where you’re going, Gold,” said Green sternly.

“...s...sorry...”

Eventually, Green stopped in the middle of the streets. Gold took a quick look up, thinking they must have arrived at the ice-cream parlour but instead, they now stood in front of a clothing shop. Gold looked back at Green, who was texting away at his phone himself.

...maybe he was just stopping to use his phone, like a responsible mobile phone user?

“We’re here,” said Green nonchalantly.

“W-wha-” Gold peeked into the clothing shop, seeing nothing but rows and racks of girl’s clothing. This wasn’t an ice-cream parlour... this was a beauty parlour more than anything!

“I thought we were getting ice cream?” he asked. “What the hell are we doing here?”

Green let out an unusually wide grin, and that was when Gold knew he was done for.

“I need a favour.”

Huh? Why come all the way here just to ask for a favour?

“What’s it about?” asked Gold, already getting the shivers.

“So, there’s this girl who’s been bothering me lately. You may know her as the rumoured trainee-actress girlfriend that I apparently have, except she’s not, and I’m not interested in her at all.”

_So it really was just a rumour..._

“No matter what I tell her, she refuses to believe me. Even if I tell her I’m gay. Or even if I tell her I have a girlfriend. So, I’m bringing one for her today.” He grinned again.

“And this has to do with me because...?” asked Gold. “I’m a guy!”

“You’re the prettiest guy I know.”

Gold glared at him. “Harsh. I’m not gonna fool her, though.”

“Well, we’re in luck. This shop is especially good at giving makeovers... specifically, they have a secret service dedicated to cross-dressing.”

Gold looked at him with an alarmed expression.

“No. No no no.” Gold crossed his arms. “No way.”

“You have to,” said Green, smirking to himself. “You have to pretend to be an actual girl, and you absolutely must convince this actress trainee that you’re my girlfriend.”

“Um, no,” said Gold, lifting his hands up. “I refuse. Goodbye.”

He was already halfway across the street

Green sprinted towards him, tackling him and keeping him in a headlock, preventing his escape.

“Ack...” Gold gasped, immediately giving up with struggling. “Somebody... help...”

Help arrived, but not for Gold. Red and Silver suddenly sprang out of the doors, yelling, “Gold! You’re finally here!”

Gold had the shock of his life. “What! Why are you here? Weren’t you gonna- oh. I’ve been tricked.”

Red stuck out a bit of his tongue. “We’ve already decided on your makeover, and I already paid for it. So if it’s not gonna go on you, it’s going on Silver.”

“Please, Gold, I’m gonna be in trouble,” said Silver, sounding not the least bit troubled. “For the sake of our friendship, please go through with the plan.”

“Meet your hairdresser!”

The hairdresser stood at the back of the salon, smiling at both of them as they walked in.

“Hello, welcome!” the hairdresser greeted warmly.

She looked feminine enough to be a girl, but... Gold couldn’t actually really tell. Gold knew that the hairdresser had a guy’s voice, but... didn’t that just prove his point?

She turned towards Green, a certain look plastered on his face, one that Green was very familiar with, after years of girls when they first met him. Most of them would give him this look that Green came to understand as admiration, or even infatuation.

“How about you?” she asked him, her voice a little sweeter than Green, or even Gold, would have liked. “Would you like a haircut? I know exactly the right hairstyle for you.”

Green shook his head firmly, pointing at Gold with his thumb. “You have a customer.”

Gold meekly stood at the side.

“Oh, yes,” The hairdresser turned towards Gold. “What kind of girl would she like to be? Preppy girl? Goth girl? Sporty-”

“Ordinary girl,” said Red. “Make it look a bit sporty, but also pretty. You fine with that, Green?”

Green nodded. Meanwhile, Gold stared at them with a gaping mouth. They didn’t even ask for his opinion?

“Then we’ll get to work at once!”

Against his better judgement, Gold eventually found himself in a salon chair, with an unstyled wig sitting on his head. The hairdresser began working on the makeup.

Gold felt thoroughly embarrassed. He didn’t even dare to look at the hairdresser while she worked.

“You have very pretty eyes,” she commented kindly.

“Thanks,” Gold replied, gratefully. It was a compliment, after all, and for a while he felt better.

The hairdresser sighed. “Tough world out there, isn’t it? Being a trans girl is really hard... It’s good that you let yourself indulge in these things once in a while.”

“Oh, uh...” Gold fumbled for words. “I’m... I’m not...”

The hairdresser simply laughed. “Don’t need to be so shy, young lady! We stick together. Don’t worry so much around me!”

“Haha...” Gold didn’t know what to say.

“Women like us have to present ourselves well from time to time, right? It’s really nice that your friends are so supportive. Oh, by the way, the tall, brown-haired one is your boyfriend, right? Sigh... it’s so hard to find love these days! How do you even find someone like him?”

Gold was far too exhausted to correct her.

“Ha... an interesting series of events, I guess...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tune in to the next chapter to spot a rare cross-dressed gold!!! ...I’m sorry, I swear the date is actually going to turn out really sweet, just r e a d o n the sweetness is near I promise!!


	17. Ice Cream Date 2.0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gold is too convincing as a girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m back!! For now ;o This ice-cream “arc” will end next chapter. I’m gonna go back to writing my other fic, ie. Gold Rose, so, sorry for that!
> 
> Also, thanks to BlackStatic for tiding me over during the tough process of overcoming my mild writers block :>

Gold got out of the seat as a completely new person, and with a new gender, too.

He wore a wig, with raven hair similar to his own, except the hair was styled into pretty curls that shaped his face and fell gently onto his shoulders. His face had makeup applied - not so much that he seemed pretentious, but just enough to make him look like a girl who mildly cared about her appearance. He kept the school uniform on, except under his (Green’s) jacket, he wore a borrowed black shirt that could fit two extra lumps on his chest.

Yes, the hairdresser even provided fake silicon breasts for Gold, and it actually fit him well. Originally she wanted to put double-Ds on him, but not only did Gold violently object to it, it was way too tight for his (Green’s) guy-sized jacket anyway. C-cups fit perfectly, in a realistic, flattering way.

When Gold finally showed himself to the others, he could barely stand the looks on their faces - Red and Silver looked like they were about to lose it completely, while Green just... stared.

Gold was utterly mortified. He didn’t even dare to look at himself at first, even though Red, Silver and his hairdresser told him he looked beautiful. Eventually when he did, though, he comforted himself with the fact that he looked decently pretty.

But his manly pride still screamed with pain...

In fact, his ego seemed to have been beaten down even more when he saw Green’s reaction.

To Green, he was exactly how he imagined gender-bent Gold to be - a very pretty tomboy. As a girl, there was a certain charm to him, and... Green’s mouth just hung agape at him. It was very apparent that Green was utterly captivated.

“You’re... really pretty,” he said, with a strange expression.

Gold cringed a smile.

_Erase, erase..._  Gold was about to have a mental breakdown. _That compliment didn’t mean anything..._

In the meantime, the other two guys in the room...

“Gold...” wheezed Silver, “I knew you already basically looked like a girl with a double mastectomy, but... this...” Silver couldn’t help but laugh.

“That’s rude. I look perfectly like a guy!”

“Maybe,” said Green, this time in awe, “you were born the wrong gender?”

“Fuck you,” cursed Gold, punching him in the shoulder.

“Alright you guys. Have fun.” Red and Silver eventually left, and so did Green and Gold, albeit in a different direction.

“I’ve decided,” said Green, as they stepped out onto the streets. “Your new name is Amber. Just for now, of course.”

Gold coughed. “What a terrible name.”

“...”

Actually, beyond their knowledge, Red and Silver were hiding in the corner of the building, stealthily tagging along with them...

**~~~~**

“So... we’re getting the Unovan Split anyway?”

“The trainee actress works at that ice-cream place.”

“...oh.”

Suddenly, it all seemed to make sense. It was like killing two birds with one stone, right? Gold thought it was pretty impressive that Green had been so resourceful, but he was also pretty bitter about it too - this was supposed to be his moment. Now, he was only part of the plan.

Was that all he was to Green?!

Gold was not bitter at all. Not even a little bit.

In his denial frenzy earlier, and his current (not) bitter state, Gold didn’t realise just how pretty he looked. As he walked into the shop with Green, people began staring at him, but none of them had looks of suspicion or amusement. They looked in admiration. There were dreamy looks from several guys, and perhaps even jealousy that he was with Green, who had looks far exceeding themselves.

“Remember, don’t speak a word or it’ll blow your cover,” whispered Green as a reminder, as they headed to the counter.

“An Unovan Split, please,” he ordered coolly.

“O-oh, alright. Would you like a custom scoop flavour combination, or just the regular?”

Green glanced at Gold, who shrugged.

“Just the regular,” Green eventually replied.

“Okay, that’ll be...”

**~~~~**

They walked towards the nearest empty two-seater table to wait for their order.

“How’s this plan gonna work?” whispered Gold, folding his arms and trying not to get them caught in his fake boobs in the process. “It’s not like she’ll coincidentally walk over with our order and notice us.”

“No, she won’t,” said Green coolly, “But she’ll make it seem like it, she’s an actress after all. The cashier we just talked to is going to tell her that I’m here. Then she’ll be the one serving the ice-cream to my table, and pretend it’s a coincidence.”

“You seem to know a lot about this...”

“Trust me, she’s done it before.”

Gold frowned. Thinking about it, his impression of the trainee actress could go either way - she was a creepy stalker who would do anything to get close to Green; or an innocent, lovesick girl that you find in stories, who just wanted to see her crush more often. Gold was conflicted between the two, but deep inside, he hoped it was the former.

“Anyway, there it is. She’s walking towards us.”

Gold stared at the order for a while, as if not believing that it was actually there.

“Here’s your order,” said the waitress. Her eyes rested on Green, and she seemed shocked. “...hey, Green.”

“Oh hey,” said Green, appearing surprised even though he had meticulously planned it out for this to happen. “Meet my girlfriend, Amber. I told you she existed.”

Gold now stared at the girl in wonder, as if not believing she was there either.

_What the hell, this girl is so pretty!!_ One look at her, and Gold knew she was going to make it big in the entertainment industry. She fit every single one of society’s beauty norms.

Why the hell would Green not want her?

On the other hand, the trainee actress interpreted Gold’s stare as a passive aggressive one.

Who the hell was this Amber girl?

And what did Green see in this girl that he didn’t see in _her_?

Buying such an expensive dessert for such a pretty girl... it would make anyone jealous. This trainee-actress certainly was.

When the girl left, Gold was all hands on deck, ready to stuff the whole thing into his mouth. Hungrily, he picked up a spoon, but then Green reached out to snatch it away.

Green scooped a large spoonful from the chocolate ice-cream scoop and pointed it Gold’s way.

“Come on, eat it.”

Unwillingly, Gold opened his mouth and leaned forward, as Green gently led the spoon in.

Gold sighed in happiness. Good ice-cream was still good ice-cream, even when some jerk was force-feeding it to him.

Seeing that expression, Green stared at him for a little while longer than usual before scooping spoonful after spoonful.

In the meantime, Red and Silver had seated themselves in a strategic corner where they could hide, yet somewhat observe the two of them eat.

“Aww, look at them...” cooed Red. “Green’s feeding him so gently...”

Suddenly, Green roughly stuffed the spoon into Gold’s mouth.

“...well,” went Silver. “About that.”

Gold squirmed, grabbing wildly for the spoon as the ice-cream shifted into his mouth. When Green felt that Gold had transferred it adequately, he took it back out, leaving Gold gasping for air.

He glared back at Green.

_Are you trying to choke me?!_

Green simply laughed in response. Noticing that Gold had left messy chocolate stains around his mouth, he took the serviette and used it to pat Gold’s lips gently.

Gold snatched the serviette away and wiped away his stains himself.

Green stared at him while he did so, and then sighed.

“Why do I like you so much, Gold?”

Gold stared at him in shock. Green seemed surprised at himself.

Suddenly, Green started to giggle.

What?! Aren’t I supposed to be the girl here?

“I like you,” he said again, his smile not fading. “I really like you.”

“You don’t have to act that well,” whispered Gold, half-jokingly.

“But I really like you.”

“...” Gold suddenly got the feeling that Green wasn’t even pretending in the first place.

Unknowingly, Gold began to blush, averting Green’s gaze.

Amongst everything that was going on, Gold was aware of the whole Green-liking-him situation, but still didn’t know what to think of it. Just imagining himself going on an actual date with Green, the guy already gave him a sneak peek of what that would be like, right? And Gold actually... liked the idea of it...

Suddenly, he felt Green’s hand on his chin, tightly grabbing it between a few fingers.

“...?!”

Green was leaning in, dangerously close to his face... Before Gold could react, Green’s lips were already on his.

The kiss barely lasted a second, but their lips lingered for longer and only separated a second after. It was only an ordinary kiss, but onlookers couldn’t help but turn away in embarrassment. It was... erotic, somehow...

In two seconds, the damage had been done. Gold stared at him in shock, while Green had turned his head and shielded half his face with a hand.

But his plan was working, because the actress had seen everything and now walked away dejectedly.

Red and Silver were first-hand witnesses too, who were really trying their best to hold it together. They were failing really, really badly, though.

“Holy.... fucking shit...” breathed Silver, laughing so hard that he was coughing out his words.

Red couldn’t help but break down in tears. He could practically see heart shaped bubbles practically spilling out of his best friend, floating out and upwards as he stared at girl-Gold, and he found it unbearably hilarious. Silver, too, was about to keel over from Gold’s reaction.

This first kiss was priceless.

**~~~~**

After an excruciatingly long time, which was actually only ten minutes, Gold gave up being fed and just rushed to get another spoon to scoff his face with ice-cream and chocolate-covered banana. Green simply sighed and helped himself to it, too. It was actually really good, after all.

Eventually, they finished the whole thing by themselves. Green was completely stuffed, but Gold seemed completely fine, as if he could eat another one by himself.

“Hey, Gold, follow me for a bit,” whispered Green, after he recovered from the fullness.

“...huh? Where?” Gold whispered back.

“Just somewhere outside.”

Gold didn’t have much of a choice to go or not, because Green had grabbed him by the arm and stood up, gently tugging on it. Gold sighed and simply decided to go with him.

Gold wasn’t quite sure why Green felt the need to take such a weird shortcut to wherever they were heading. He was one to take a few back streets himself, cut a few corners to avoid crowds and such, but at night? Possibly the most dangerous time of day to be sneaking about, right? So why was Green bringing him somewhere through the back, and through the alleyways?

It couldn’t lead to anywhere else less dark and dingy, could it?

“If you’re trying to avoid getting mugged,” he mumbled “then wouldn’t staying by the street lights make more sense?”

“I’m not worried about that.” Green spoke over his shoulder, picking up his pace. “Come on, I promise it’s safe.”

As they entered a parking lot, Gold realised with a start: this was dangerous. The parking lot was empty, completely empty, just a huge empty space lit up by a few dim street lamps, the fading sunset and the moon in the night sky, with a few strange nooks and crannies in the buildings that walled up the place, and it made it look like anyone would be able to get away with murder in here, or worse-

_Surely Green wasn’t going to....?_

Gold’s heart began to race, frantically. It kept sprinting faster and faster until Gold felt like he was about to faint. All he could do was freeze on the spot, unable to walk even a single step further.

Weren’t... weren’t there CCTV cameras around here? No, but it was so dark- But they had to be infrared or nightvision or some shit, right? Green couldn’t-

Noticing how he fell behind, Green slowed his pace and looked over his shoulder to see Gold standing a few feet away, hugging himself defensively as he tried to slow his breathing.

“Uh... Gold, are you okay?”

Gold didn’t respond, and that scared Green. Did something happen? Did he have a fear of the dark, did he have history of anxiety attacks, or...? And then it hit him.

_Shit... does Gold think I’m...?_

Green mentally smacked himself before awkwardly backtracking.

Gold bit his lip, looking down at his feet, adrenaline pumping throughout his body. He didn’t even notice when Green lightly placed his hand on his shoulder.

He jumped, making the other boy pull back uneasily.

“Shit, Gold, I--” Green silenced himself before he made things worse. “...do you want to sit down a minute?”

Gold didn’t know what he wanted. He could still feel Green’s touch through his jacket. It was like an electric shock - it startled him, but something about it lingered even after he had stepped away. He wanted to run, but the concern in Green’s eyes looked so sincere, so apologetic...

“Gold?” Green’s voice was barely a whisper. “I really didn’t mean to--”

He trailed off. Gold finally forced his mouth to form a sentence.

“...can you just tell us where we’re going?”

A sigh.

“We’re not going anywhere weird or whatever, if... if you’re more comfortable, we can go back near the shop. Just not inside though, it’ll... it’s too bright.”

“And why don’t you want it to be bright?”

“...”

“Ah, whatever, let’s just go back, then. Somewhere less unsavoury than this.”

Wordlessly, Green turned around, heading back to where they came from. Gold couldn’t help but just trust him and follow.

Needless to say, it was awkward on the way back, until Green spoke again.

“I want it to be under the night sky.”

“Want what?” Gold was taken aback, to say the least.

“Our first kiss.”

“...” Gold nearly fell over. He felt almost maligned. “...you know we aren’t actually dating, right...”

“Yeah, but a first kiss is still a first kiss. You’re still my first kiss.”

“...I... I am, huh... so...” Gold felt himself heat up involuntarily.

His words trailed off, and the atmosphere became stuffy and awkward again. They finally reached a corridor near the shop that was fairly empty because of the time of day, but still close to the main road, and that was where Green stopped.

“Is this okay?”

Gold gulped. “Yeah, sure.”

Green let out another sigh.

“Gold... I don’t know how to put this, but humour me? This is the only time I can touch you in public.”

“Eh?”

“When it doesn’t look gay.”

“...” Gold was rendered speechless for a moment. “Green, even if I really were a girl, I don’t think this public display of... intense... affection is socially... acceptable...”

Green ignored him, shyly pulling himself closer. For all that big talk, he did it so hesitantly and awkwardly that Gold couldn’t help but feel his heart twist up at how stupid Green was acting.

Up close, Gold could tell that Green was blushing. It didn’t show very obviously on his cheeks, but his ears were completely red, and his face - oh god, his expression, one clearly of infatuation, a deeply-rooted admiration... directed at nobody other than Gold himself.

Today proved it. The prettiest girls in the world, one-in-a-million beauties like that trainee-actress... They were no match for him. Green pushed them all away.

Only Gold was worthy of his attention.

“I really like you,” he whispered.

Under that intense emotion, in his firm grasp, Gold almost wanted to say, _me too_. Like in a romance drama.

“I know.”

The classic non-rejection answer. Green sighed, feeling slightly disappointed.

“...can I kiss you?” he asked.

“...I don’t know, can you?”

“...” Gold had just pulled an elementary teacher on him. “Of course I can.”

Green grabbed the back of Gold’s head with both hands, and leaned in again. He kissed him, sweeter, deeper this time. He was so wanting, so gentle, Gold couldn’t help but lean in himself.

Green’s grasp was strong, but gentle, which he did on purpose - because he liked Gold, and he wanted to hold onto him as tight as he could, but he never wanted to hurt him. Hurting him was a mistake, but he just didn’t want to let him loose either. He wanted to make Gold his. It was as simple as that, but there was also this deep burning desire to  _have_  him, be dominant and just-

Relish the moment. Gold’s lips were soft, but his kiss was firm. Green didn’t know where this energy or enthusiasm came from, but he wasn’t about to complain. They leaned into each other, their noses poking each other slightly, but neither seemed to mind. The feeling of a deep kiss was too much for Green to handle, it was better than he thought it would be, and he felt his whole body go numb in a split second...

It lasted for maybe ten seconds before Green pulled away.

Even Gold was reluctant to stop.

But wait! Why was Gold even enjoying this? Wasn’t Green the jerk? Wasn’t he trying to...

“That’s all I need,” breathed Green, finally. “Thank you.”

Gold took in a deep breath, shaking his head once.

“Good, because that’s the last time you’re ever going to kiss me like that.” After saying that, he pushed himself away from Green and slowly headed back to the shop on his own.

Green stared on for a while, smiling.

**~~~~**

Green had lied.

That was nowhere what Green needed from Gold.

That one kiss may have satisfied his cravings just that one time, but Green knew that it couldn’t just end there.

One kiss was all it needed for him to get hooked.

The dose had to keep getting higher. He had to consume more until it consumed him.

Green wasn’t going to run away anymore. He was going to get addicted as fuck, and he knew it.

He... wanted it?

He needed it.

**~~~~**

They were both back at their table in the ice-cream place.

“I need to go use the washroom,” said Green, suddenly. “Wait for me here.”

“Oh, I need to go too.”

“No, you can’t, you still look like a girl. Go after you change out, or just go to the ladies’. They won’t notice.”

Gold was not about to go use the ladies’ restroom, out of his shameless pride. He stood outside, sighing and getting out his phone, doing the usual. It took maybe half a minute of blissful silence, until he sensed a tall shadow looming over him.

Gold looked up to see a tall guy, smiling down at him.

“Hey, what’cha waiting here for?”

Gold gulped, thinking he was blocking the way, so he attempted to move to the side. But the guy seemed unhappy with the decision, and blocked his escape with a hand to the wall.

Gold felt it coming with dread.

“Hey, don’t leave without giving me your number, at least,” said the guy said softly, winking at him.

Gold was speechless.

_Is he hitting on me?!_

Gold didn’t know what to say. Even if he did, he couldn’t, this guy thought he was a girl and might think he was trans, or worse, trolling him, if he revealed himself... he might get beaten up for that...

He panicked. What the hell should he do now?

Then the guy laughed, pulling his hand away. “Hey, no problem, I just wanted to ask. But since you’re waiting, we can-”

From the corner of his eye, he spotted someone with an eye-catching blue and white uniform jacket like he did, and quickly realised that it was Green.

He didn’t need to look closely to see that Green was slightly pissed off. He cleared his throat, catching the guy’s attention.

“Hey, Amber, let’s go.”

Gold was so relieved, that he didn’t even mind Green wrapping an arm around his shoulders and holding him ever so tightly to himself.

The other guy started to inch away from them upon seeing who he was up against, but Green wasn’t satisfied with that. He glared once at the guy, who then immediately backed off an entire metre.

The guy was terrified - how the hell could he compete with someone like this? He wasn’t gay, but even he felt lured in by this guy’s killer looks. Wanting to fight him for his territory was a death wish.

So Green led Gold out towards the exit, making sure to not-so-accidentally bump the guy’s shoulder on his way out.

On the other corner of the ice-cream parlour, Red and Silver had temporarily forgotten that they were in hiding and broken down into hysterics. Silver had doubled over and collapsed into his chair, wheezing with laughter, while Red was halfway on the floor laughing his ass off.

“Gold... pff... he looks so fucking lost...”

“I can’t believe... I got to see Green being all protective and... holy shit he’s adorable... ahaha...”

They were surprised that they still hadn’t been spotted...

In any case, today really was a great day, especially for them. Everything went almost exactly as planned!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh i’m such a sucker for the “i like you but i sure as hell ain’t going to make you think i do” trope its so cheesy but fuck I love it

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :) Updates will be quite frequent, so stay tuned!


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